The AP (10/26, Baldor) reports, “The number of suicides among U.S. military members and their families dipped slightly in 2022, compared with the previous year, as the Defense Department tries to build prevention and treatment programs to address what has been a steadily growing problem over the past decade, The Associated Press has learned.” However, “because the active-duty force is smaller now, the rate of suicides per 100,000 service members inched up, according to U.S. officials.” Overall, “defense officials said the long-term trend still points to increasing deaths, although the relative stability in the numbers for 2022 gives them some cautious encouragement.”

Related Links:

— “The number of military suicides dipped in 2022 as the Pentagon works on new prevention programs,”Lolita C. Baldor, AP, October 26, 2023

Psychiatric News (10/25) reports, “Youth who reported experiencing severe psychological distress were more likely to vape cannabis in the previous month than those who did not report psychological distress, according to” a study. Investigators came to this conclusion after looking “at the association between cannabis vaping and psychological distress among 22,202 youth aged 11 to 18 years using data from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Over 60% of Youth Who Vape Cannabis Report Psychological Distress, Psychiatric News , October 25, 2023

NBC News (10/25, Guilfoil) reports, “The White House on Wednesday requested $1.55 billion from Congress to address illicit fentanyl driving overdose deaths across the country as part of a broader funding package.” This money “would be included alongside money for grants to states, territories and tribes through a Department of Health and Human Services program that aims to help strengthen addiction treatment, overdose prevention measures and recovery support services.” The request “comes after the administration asked Congress for money focused on foreign policy and border issues, including an additional 1,000 law enforcement personnel and investigative capabilities to prevent cartels from moving fentanyl into the country.”

Related Links:

— “White House presses for money to prevent opioid deaths as congressional dysfunction stymies aid,”Kyla Guilfoil, NBC News , October 25, 2023

Healio (10/25, Cooper) reports, “An earlier follow-up visit after psychiatric inpatient discharge was associated with lower risk of suicide in a population-based study from South Korea.” The data indicated that “earlier follow-up lowered suicide risk for patients with substance use disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, suggesting that ‘more intensive follow-up’ is needed immediately after discharge, particularly for the prevention of suicide in those deemed high-risk at admission…wrote” the researchers. The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Earlier follow-up lowered suicide risk after psychiatric inpatient discharge,”Justin Cooper, Healio, October 25, 2023

The New York Times (10/24, Weiland) reports, “Health workers feel burnout more frequently than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic, while also struggling with symptoms of anxiety and depression, sleep problems and harassment, according to a federal survey of American workers published on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The result “compared data from 2018 and 2022 and underscored a dire staffing crisis in the nation’s health work force, which limped through the pandemic amid long hours, high turnover, violence in emergency departments and public vitriol over vaccines, masks and treatments.”

The Hill (10/24, Weixel) says the report found that, “overall, about 46% of health care workers reported feeling burnout often or very often in 2022, compared with 32% in 2018.” Almost “half of those in the field also reported they were likely or very likely to apply for a new job – in contrast to other worker groups who reported a decrease in job turnover intention.”

Healio (10/24, Rhoades) reports, “Harassment at work also rose from 6.4% to 13.4% from 2018 to 2022, and was linked to increased odds of: anxiety,” depression, and burnout.

Related Links:

— “Why Health Care Workers Are Burning Out,”Noah Weiland, The New York Times, October 24, 2023

The Washington Post (10/24, Reynolds Lewis) reports, “Young adults in the United States experience anxiety and depression twice as frequently as teenagers, according to a new nationally representative survey.” The survey, from “Making Caring Common, a project of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education,” found that “thirty-six percent of young adults — ages 18 to 25 — reported anxiety, compared with 18 percent of younger teenagers — ages 14 to 17 — while 29 percent felt depression, compared with 15 percent in the younger age group in the survey.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (10/24, Kang, Singer) reports, “Meta was sued by more than three dozen states on Tuesday for knowingly using features on Instagram and Facebook to hook children to its platforms, even as the company said its social media sites were safe for young people.” The coalition of 33 states “said that Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger – violated consumer protection laws by unfairly ensnaring children and deceiving users about the safety of its platforms.” Washington, DC, “and eight other states filed separate lawsuits on Tuesday against Meta with most of the same claims.”

The Washington Post (10/24, Lima, Nix) reports, “The barrage of lawsuits is the culmination of a sprawling 2021 investigation into claims that Meta contributes to mental health issues among young people.” The states’ “federal complaint alleges that the company engaged in a ‘scheme to exploit young users for profit’ by misleading users about its safety features and the prevalence of harmful content on its products, harvesting data from younger users and violating federal laws on children’s privacy.” Furthermore, “state officials claim that the company knowingly deployed changes to keep kids on the site to the detriment of their well-being.”

Reuters (10/24, Stempel, Bartz, Raymond) reports research has linked “children’s use of Meta’s social media platforms with ‘depression, anxiety, insomnia, interference with education and daily life, and many other negative outcomes.’”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (10/23) reports, “Older adults with depression may be least likely to discontinue or switch treatment when prescribed sertraline for the first time compared with other antidepressants, suggests a” study. Researchers came to this conclusion after comparing “one-year outcomes in 93,000 Danish residents with depression who for the first time filled a prescription for one of 10 antidepressants.” The findings were published in The American Journal of Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Study Compares Clinical Outcomes of Older Adults Prescribed 10 Common Antidepressants, Psychiatric News , October 23, 2023

HealthDay (10/23, Reinberg) reports, “Many college kids are depressed and anxious, especially when they are a minority on campus or the first in their family to go to a university, a…study finds.” Investigators also found that “women suffered greater depression and anxiety levels than men.” The findings were published online in the Journal of American College Health.

Related Links:

— “Depression Rates Rising Among College Students, and Race Matters,”Steven Reinberg, HealthDay , October 23, 2023

CNN (10/20, Musa) reported, “After years of increases, the rate of firearm-related homicides in the United States decreased in 2022, according to data published…by the” CDC. CNN added, “This is the first time the national firearm homicide rate has fallen since a sharp increase was recorded from 2019 to 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the CDC.” The “provisional CDC data from 2022 saw 5.9 deaths per 100,000 people, about a 6% decrease from 2021.”

Related Links:

— “US firearm homicide rate ticks down from pandemic peak, but remains elevated,”Amanda Musa, CNN , October 20, 2023