The CBS News (8/7, Blaszczak-Boxe) website reported that according to two reports released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), “there has been a significant rise in drug-related suicide attempts in the past few years, with the most alarming increase among middle-aged people.” The reports found that “hospital emergency department visits involving drug-related suicide attempts in people ages 45 to 64 doubled between 2005 and 2011 – rising from 28,802 cases in 2005 to 58,775 in 2011.” In fact, there was an overall “51 percent increase in suicide-related visits to emergency departments among people age 12 and older – from 151,477 visits in 2005 to 228,277 visits in 2011,” the reports found.

Related Links:

— “Drug-related suicide attempts rise sharply,” Agata Blasczak-Boxe, CBS News, August 7, 2014.

HealthDay (8/7, Preidt) reports on a new study that found “adults whose childhood included having a family member in prison are about 15 percent more likely to have poor physical and mental health than those who didn’t.” Researchers say this finding only suggests that the high rate of imprisonment in the US “may be contributing to long-term health problems in some families,” but concede that “they were not able to show that having relatives in jail during one’s youth was a direct cause of poor health later in life.”

Related Links:

— “Children With Jailed Family Members More Likely to Have Poor Health Later,” Robery Preidt, HealthDay, August 6, 2014.

The CBS Evening News (8/6, story 8, 1:45, Pelley) reported that a new study appears to link “vitamin D deficiency to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia.”

The Washington Post (8/7, Kunkle) reports that in the study (8/6) published online Aug. 6 in the journal Neurology, “researchers studied vitamin D blood levels in 1,658 people age 65 and older who were able to walk, free of dementia, and without a history of cardiovascular disease or stroke.” For the next six years, “medical personnel tracked the subjects…using brain scans, cognitive tests, medical records and other diagnostic tools, to see how many developed Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia.” Investigators “found that adults who suffered from a moderate deficiency of vitamin D had a 53 percent higher risk of some form of dementia, while the risk increased 125 percent in those with severe deficiencies.”

Related Links:

— “Researchers say Vitamin D deficiency raises Alzheimer’s risk,” Frederick Kunkle, Washington Post, August 6, 2014.

The CBS Evening News (8/5, story 7, 5:55, Pelley) reported, “Tonight, we have a CBS News investigation into the use of electric shocks to change harmful behaviors in children and adults with developmental disabilities, including autism.” The FDA is now “considering a ban” on the practice which is currently used only at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, MA. CBS News correspondent Anna Werner explained that the center insists that “a program of electric shocks, shocks they compared to a bee sting, works better than medication to stop people with severe disabilities from injuring themselves or others.”

The CBS News (8/6, Burkholder) website reports that Jennifer Msumba, who spent seven years at the Rotenberg Center, was “shocked multiple times before she left…in 2009.” In April, “Msumba provided testimony to a US Food and Drug Administration panel” which had convened “to discuss a ban on using electrical stimulation devices to modify aggressive or self-injurious behavior in people with severe emotional problems and developmental disorders.” Msumba described the practice of being shocked as “being underground in Hell.”

Related Links:

— “Controversy over shocking people with autism, behavioral disorders,” Amy Burkholder, CBS News, August 5, 2014.

HealthDay (8/5, Reinberg) reports that a study published online Aug. 4 in JAMA Neurology that followed nearly “14,000 people found that high blood pressure in those aged 48 to 67 was tied to a late-life drop in mental ability.” Over two decades, people with midlife hypertension “experienced a modest but significant 6.5 percent decline in scores on tests of mental function, compared with people with normal blood pressure.”

MedPage Today (8/5, Phend) reports that an accompanying editorial noted that “guidelines do recommend blood pressure lowering for middle-age and younger seniors as useful for prevention of late-life dementia.”

Related Links:

— “High Blood Pressure in Middle Age, Weaker Brain Later?,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, August 4, 2014.

HealthDay (8/5, Dallas) reports that according to a study published July 1 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, preschoolers may also be affected by depression. The study, which involved 246 youngsters ranging in age from three to five, also revealed that “preschoolers who are depressed are two and a half times more likely to continue to experience symptoms in elementary and middle school.”

Related Links:

— “Preschoolers Can Suffer From Depression, Too,” Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay, August 4, 2014.

The Los Angeles Times (8/4, A1, Zarembo) reports that “disability awards for PTSD have grown nearly fivefold over the last 13 years,” and with them, “concerns that many veterans might be exaggerating or lying to win benefits” have grown as well. Veterans with PTSD “can receive up to $3,000 a month tax-free, making the disorder the biggest contributor to the growth of a disability system in which payments have more than doubled to $49 billion since 2002.” The Times notes that since “the diagnosis relies mainly on what patients report, it is easy to exaggerate,” adding that on online forums, veterans even trade advice “on how to behave in their disability evaluations.”

Related Links:

— “As disability awards grow, so do concerns with veracity of PTSD claims,” Alan Zerembo, Los Angeles Times, August 3, 2014.

The Gadsden (AL) Times (8/2) editorialized, “The American Psychiatric Association predicted a shortage of about 22,000 child psychiatrists and 2,900 geriatric psychiatrists by” 2015. Meanwhile, “the US Department of Health and Human Services designated 4,000 Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas in the nation,” including all 67 counties in the state of Alabama.

The Times concluded that “when a shortage of trained professionals numbering in the tens of thousands is expected within a year, and when every county in a state is facing a shortage of services, ‘crisis’ is not a strong enough word.”

Related Links:

— “OUR VIEW: Alabama faces crisis in mental health care,” The Gadsen Times, August 1, 2014.

The New York Times (8/2, Graham) reported that a study presented to the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry found “older adults contemplating suicide do not cite depression as the primary reason.” Rather, more often reasons for suicidal ideation included “struggles with illness, disability, financial concerns, family difficulties and bereavement.” The conclusions suggest “treatment of depression alone may not be sufficient to reduce suicide rates among the elderly.”

Related Links:

— “Many Problems Lead to Thoughts of Suicide, Study Finds,” Judith Graham, New York Times, August 1, 2014.

The AP (8/4, Rubinkam) reports on “the hazards mental health professionals face on the job.” Mental health professionals “are at far greater risk of assault than workers as a whole, an occupational hazard at the best of times and one that’s been made worse by a persistent lack of funding for mental health services, the loss of thousands of inpatient psychiatric beds and the increasing use of hospitals to temporarily house criminals with mental illness.”

Safety guidelines published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for healthcare workers, including mental health professionals, recommend “metal detectors, enclosed nurses’ stations, multiple exits, furniture bolted to the floor in crisis treatment rooms, curved mirrors at hallway intersections and a variety of other steps.”

Related Links:

— “Hospital Killing Shows Safety Gap in Mental Health,” Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press, August 3, 2014.