Medscape (5/4, Brooks) reports that according to a study presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, “Instagram, the popular picture-based social media platform with more than 80 million users, contains ‘alarming’ prosuicidal or self-harm images, despite its stated policy against such content.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after having conducted “a search on Instagram using the search term, ‘hashtag suicide’ (#suicide), and analyzed the content of the first 60 images and quotes they found.” Investigators discovered that 27% of the images “had either a prosuicide (15%) or pro-self-harm (12%) theme, and none of them identified mental health resources or help.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (5/2, Dotinga) reports that according to a review published online April 30 in the journal BMJ Open, “overweight teens are likely to feel stigmatized, isolated and even bullied for their size.” After reviewing “30 studies that surveyed teens in the United Kingdom (aged 12 to 18) about weight issues,” researchers concluded that “approaches that merely educate and admonish individuals about lifestyles and being overweight are not only insufficient but also potentially counterproductive.”

Related Links:

— “Overweight Teens Feel Stigmatized, Bullied: Study,” , HealthDay, May 1, 2014.

HealthDay (5/2, Preidt) reports that according to the results of a study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and presented at the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry’s annual meeting, “health, money and family problems – not depression – are the main factors that trigger thoughts of death and suicide among elderly Americans.” The study, which included “nearly 3,500 New York City residents, aged 65 to 75, found that factors other than depression were responsible for thoughts of death and suicide 75 percent of the time.”

Related Links:

— “When Older Adults Consider Suicide, Depression May Not Be Main Reason,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, May 1, 2014.

USA Today (5/2, Painter) reports that according to a study published online May 1 in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry, “detailed, high-profile newspaper stories about individual suicides may have played a role in creating suicide clusters among young people, at least in the 1980s and 1990s.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after having collected and then analyzed “information on 48 communities where clusters of suicides in youths ages 13 to 20 occurred between 1988 and 1996.” An editorial accompanying the study suggests that “an obvious next step is looking at whether discussions of suicide in social media might lead to copycat cases.”

Related Links:

— “Newspaper coverage linked with youth suicide clusters,” Kim Painter, USA Today, May 1, 2014.

The Wall Street Journal (5/1, A17, Vilensky, Subscription Publication) reports that an anonymous current student at Princeton University has filed a lawsuit that has broad implications for US colleges dealing with students who attempt suicide. The suit claims that Princeton violated the student’s rights under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and the Americans with Disabilities Act in that the university did not provide reasonable accommodation for his mental illness.

Related Links:

— “Suicide Suit Involving Princeton Is ‘Bellwether’,” Mike Vilensky, Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2014.

On its front page, the Boston Globe (4/28, Matchan) reports on the “emerging — and vocal — movement of suicide-attempt survivors who are stepping out of the shadows and speaking out about their experiences.” In so doing, attempt survivors hope to address the social stigma surrounding suicide and encourage more potentially suicidal people to get help. The Globe profiles several such attempt survivors who are now sharing their stories.

Related Links:

— “Suicide-attempt survivors go public in hope of aiding many at risk,” Linda Matchan, Boston Globe, April 29, 2014.

The Kaiser Health News (4/26, Gillespie) “Capsules” blog reported that “a push for new funding – and the use of existing funds – may soon make more resources available to help identify” veterans needing “help with depression or other mental illness through the National Council for Behavioral Health’s ‘Mental Health First Aid training.’”

NCBH, along with other groups advocating for those with mental illnesses, is “seeking part of the at least $15 million allocated to train first responders, which include police, nurses and college administrators, to identify the warning signs of mental illness among veterans, teaching ‘de-escalation’ techniques and referring people at risk to” mental healthcare professionals.

Related Links:

— “First-Aid Training For Mental Health Could Aid At-Risk Veterans,” Lisa Gillespie, Kaiser Health News, April 26, 2014.

USA Today (4/25, Zoroya) reports that new numbers reveal suicide rates in the military from 2006 onward were “slightly worse” than previously thought. The article states the “old, now-abandoned calculation…relied partly on an estimated figure” and that the new figures show the true suicide rate was close to one percent higher. The Pentagon now estimates that the suicide rate is close to 30 deaths per 100,000. Jacqueline Garrick, the director of the Defense Suicide Prevention Office, noted that “it took us time and effort to sit down and really just figure out a better way to do the math.”

Related Links:

— “War-years military suicide rate higher than believed,” Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, April 25, 2014.

The NBC News (4/24, Fox) website reports that a survey conducted by researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics has found that “7.5 percent of children aged 6–17 are taking some sort of prescription medicine for emotional or behavioral difficulties,” supporting evidence that an increasing number of “US kids are getting drugs for conditions like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD).” For the survey, researchers interviewed the parents of 17,000 youngsters during the years 2011 and 2012. Figures from the American Psychiatric Association indicate that “five percent of US children have AD/HD,” the article also notes.

Related Links:

— “More Than 7 Percent of Kids on Behavioral Meds,” Maggie Fox, NBC News, April 23, 2014.

Medscape (4/24) reports that according to a review published online April 14 in the journal Pediatrics, “exposure to childhood sexual abuse (CSA) may increase the odds of later suicidal behavior, including suicide attempts.” After reviewing data from nine studies involving nearly 9,000 participants, researchers found that “those who experienced CSA before the age of 16 to 18 years were more than twice as likely to attempt or complete suicides.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)