NBC News (8/21, Fox) reports on its website that research published in the Journal of Medical Ethics indicates that “more than 600 people traveled to Switzerland to die between 2008 and 2012, and the numbers doubled over those years.” Study author Dr. Saskia Gauthier wrote, “The main reasons were neurological disease (47 percent), followed by cancer (37 percent), rheumatic and cardiovascular disease.”

The New York Times (8/21, Belluck, Subscription Publication) reports that researchers found twenty-one individuals arrived in Switzerland from the United States for an assisted suicide between 2010 and 2012.

Related Links:

— “Seeking Death: ‘Suicide Tourism’ to Switzerland Doubles,” Maggie Fox, NBC News, August 20, 2014.

TIME (8/21, Sifferlin) reports that according to results of a 452-patient study published online Aug. 20 in JAMA Psychiatry, “a combination of antidepressants and therapy work to help severely depressed patients recover.”

Medscape (8/21, Cassels) reports that the study revealed that “patients with severe, nonchronic depression had better rates of recovery if they were treated with cognitive therapy (CT) combined with” antidepressants, compared with patients who received antidepressant medications alone. The investigators found, however, that “this treatment strategy had little, if any, benefit for patients with less severe or chronic major depression.”

Related Links:

— “Therapy and Antidepressants Work Better Together Than Just Pills Alone,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, August 20, 2014.

The Kaiser Health News (8/20, Gold) reports that the City of San Antonio, TX and surrounding Bexar County “have completely overhauled their mental health system into a program considered a model for the rest of” the US. Their “effort has focused on an idea called ‘smart justice’ – basically, diverting people with serious mental illness out of jail and into treatment instead.”

This effort “is possible because all the players in the system that deal with mental illness – the police, the county jail, mental health department, criminal courts, hospitals and homeless programs – pooled their resources to take better care of people with mental illness.”

Related Links:

— “San Antonio Police Have Radical Approach To Mental Illness: Treat It,” Jenny Gold, Kaiser Health News, August 19, 2014.

In her column in the Los Angeles Times (8/16), Sandy Banks wrote, “Mental illness can undermine logic and overwhelm good intentions.” She asserted that “the best way to honor” Robin Williams “may be to drag depression out of the closet and place it center stage.” She suggested that “instead of saying ‘Are you OK?’ to a friend who seems hopeless or depressed, we ought to ask directly, ‘Have you felt so bad you wanted to die?’”

Related Links:

— “Time to shine a light on suicide, and banish the shame,” Sandy Banks, Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2014.

USA Today (8/18, Healy) reports that according to research published online Aug. 18 in the journal Pediatrics, “more parents – especially upper-income ones – are reporting that their children have a physical, developmental or mental health disability.” An analysis revealed that “the number of non-institutionalized children age 17 and younger with disabilities rose 16% between 2001 and 2011, with nearly six million children (8% of the population) reported as having a disability.”

The AP (8/18) reports, “The increases may partly reflect more awareness and recognition that conditions, including autism, require a specific diagnosis to receive special services, the researchers say.”

Related Links:

— “Parent-reported cases of disability in children rise,” Michelle Healy, USA Today, August 18, 2014.

HealthDay (8/15, Preidt) reports that according to a study published online Aug. 14 in the American Journal of Public Health, “when large numbers of workers lose their jobs, suicide attempts increase among certain groups of teens.” After analyzing “the results of a survey of more than 403,000 American teens conducted from 1997 to 2009, along with nationwide data about layoffs,” researchers “found that when one percent of a state’s workers lost their jobs, suicide attempts and other suicide-related behaviors jumped two…to three percent among girls during the following year.”

Related Links:

— “Worker Layoffs Tied to Rise in Teen Suicides, Study Finds,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 14, 2014.

Major television networks, newspapers, wire sources and Internet media outlets continue coverage of comedian and actor Robin Williams’ suicide, focusing on the revelation by his widow, Susan Schneider, that Williams was in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease, but he was not yet ready to share his diagnosis with the public.

ABC World News (8/14, story 3, 2:20, Muir) reported that Susan Schneider released “a statement thanking everyone for the outpouring of good wishes, but she added something else, revealing that Robin Williams had received a Parkinson’s diagnosis.” In another segment on ABC World News (8/14, story 4, 0:30, Muir), senior medical contributor Jennifer Ashton, MD reported that it is “very difficult to treat depression in a patient with Parkinson’s, but there is excellent treatment now and there is reason for hope.”

The New York Times (8/14, Sanger-Katz, Subscription Publication) reports in “The Upshot” that “there’s a strong body of evidence that suicide is…contagious,” and that “publicity surrounding a suicide has been repeatedly and definitively linked to a subsequent increase in suicide, especially among young people.”

For that reason, “suicide prevention advocates have developed guidelines for news media coverage of suicide deaths.” The goal is not to glamorize suicide “or to make it seem like a simple or inevitable solution for people who are at risk.”

Related Links:

— “The Science Behind Suicide Contagion,” Margot Sanger-Katz, New York Times, August 13, 2014.

NBC Nightly News (8/13, story 6, 2:25, Holt) reported in the aftermath of the suicide of comedian and actor Robin Williams on “an outpouring for people who face similar struggles with depression and suicide.” Correspondent Kate Snow was shown saying, “People struggling with depression turned to social media, strangers supporting each other sharing deeply personal stories.” Snow emphasized the importance of the “dialogue about suicide that’s happening because of Robin Williams,” citing her own personal experience with the loss of a family member to suicide.

The Washington Post (8/14, Kunkle) reports that a study published online Aug. 13 in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that “difficulty sleeping may contribute to a risk of suicide in older adults.” The study “examined data on 420 people who were an average of about 75 years old and living in the community.” The participants, made up of “400 control patients and 20 who died by suicide…were tracked over a 10 year period.”

The Boston Globe (8/14, Rice) mentions the study’s findings and adds that “according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, sleep complaints are actually one of the top 10 warning signs for suicide.”

Related Links:

— “Poor sleep appears linked to higher suicide risk in older adults, study shows,” Fredrick Kunkle, Washington Post, August 13, 2014.