The Los Angeles Times (5/21, MacVean) reports in its “Science Now” blog that “in a study published Monday the Canadian Medical Assn. Journal, researchers surveyed thousands of teenagers about the effects of suicide by someone they knew or attended school with.” According to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Canadian universities of Ottawa and Alberta, “Adolescents may be particularly susceptible to” the idea that suicide is “contagious.” The researchers found that “broadly, suicide death of a schoolmate was a stronger predictor of suicide outcomes than a suicide by someone who is personally known, perhaps because the death of a peer resonates with youth more than the death of a close adult.”

Related Links:

— “After a suicide, classmates often think about it too, study says, “Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2013.

On the front of its Personal Journal section, the Wall Street Journal (5/21, D1, Wang, Subscription Publication) reports that social behavior changes or deterioration in social or emotional functioning may be the first clues of a mental-health or neurological disorder. For example, inappropriate behavior may portend frontotemporal dementia or Alzheimer’s, while a lack of empathy can be seen in people with schizophrenia or autism. According to the article, family members are more likely than patients themselves to observe social changes. Neurology professor Katherine Rankin, of the University of California-San Francisco, suggested that middle-aged adults who notice such changes are advised to see a neurologist.

Related Links:

— “When Social Skills Are a Warning, “Shirley S. Wang, The Wall Street Journal, May 20, 2013.

HealthDay (5/20, Gordon) reports that a 992-participant study published online May 17 in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research “shows that college women are more likely to drink unhealthy amounts of alcohol on a weekly basis than are college men.” During “the study, 15 percent of women exceeded weekly drinking limits, compared to 12 percent of men.”

Related Links:

— “College Women More Prone to Problem Drinking Than Men: Study, “Serena Gordon, HealthDay, May 17, 2013.

Ross Douthat, in a column for the New York Times (5/19, Subscription Publication) wrote, “Over the last decade, the United States has become a less violent country in every way save one. As Americans commit fewer and fewer crimes against other people’s lives and property, they have become more likely to inflict fatal violence on themselves.” Noting that “more Americans now die of suicide than in car accidents, and gun suicides are almost twice as common as gun homicides,” Douthat claimed that “this trend is striking without necessarily being surprising. As the University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox pointed out recently, there’s a strong link between suicide and weakened social ties,” which is “exactly what we’ve seen happen lately among the middle-aged male population, whose suicide rates have climbed the fastest: a retreat from family obligations, from civic and religious participation, and from full-time paying work.”

Related Links:

— “All the Lonely People, “Ross Douthat, The New York Times, May 18, 2013.

Bloomberg News (5/18, Gale) reported, “The drug ketamine relieved symptoms of hard-to-treat depression within a day of treatment, in the largest study yet of the drug’s potential use for depression.” In the study of “72 people whose depression hadn’t responded to at least two antidepressants, patients taking ketamine were twice as likely to report improvement than those on a placebo.” The researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York “will present the findings at the meeting of the American Psychiatric Association,” which started Saturday in San Francisco.

Related Links:

— “Club-Drug Ketamine Relieves Depression in Largest Patient Study, “Jason Gale, Bloomberg News, May 18, 2013.

The Washington Informer (5/16) reports that District of Columbia “Mayor Vincent C. Gray has extended his congratulations to DC Department of Health (DOH) Interim Director” Saul Levin, MD, MPA, “for being named the American Psychiatric Association’s new CEO and medical director.” According to the Informer, “Dr. Levin has led DOH since last July.” Levin will step down from DOH on July 12.

Psychiatric News (5/16) reports that Levin “will replace James H. Scully Jr., MD, who will step down when his contract is up later this year.” Psychiatric News adds that Dr. “Levin has served on several APA components including the Board of APA’s political action committee (APAPAC), the Scientific Program Committee, and as a consultant to the Finance and Budget Committee. He has also been a member of the APA delegation to the” American Medical Association. A pdf copy of APA’s press release announcing Dr. Levin’s appointment can be accessed here.

Related Links:

— “Saul Levin, M.D., Will Be Next APA Medical Director/CEO, Psychiatric News Alert, May 15, 2013.

The AP (5/15) reports, In “response to gun violence,” President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden plan to host a mental health conference “June 3 at the White House.” Presidential spokesman Jay “Carney said attendees will include mental health advocates, health care” professionals, “faith leaders, government officials, educators and people who have experienced mental health problems.”

The Washington Times (5/16, Boyer) reports, “Mr. Carney also said the President ordered Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to initiate a ‘national conversation’ about mental health as part of the administration’s effort to reduce gun violence.”

Related Links:

— “Obama planning June 3 mental health conference, “Associated Press, Boston.com, May 15, 2013.

Medscape (5/16, Harrison) reports, “A 10-minute office visit is not long enough to accurately assess toddlers with early signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) because they often display largely typical behaviors during such brief visits and the diagnosis is easy to miss,” according to a study presented at the 12th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research. After working with three groups of youngsters ranging in age from 15 to 33 months, researcher Terisa Gabrielsen, PhD, Center for Autism Research, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said, “Our findings indicated that within a brief 10-minute window…toddlers with early signs of ASD do show some atypical behaviors, but the vast majority of their behavior was rated as pretty typical.”

The Salt Lake (UT) Tribune (5/16, Whitehurst) reports a study from the University of Utah believes “repeated traumatic brain injuries can significantly increase suicide risk for people in the military and the danger appears to continue throughout the soldier’s lifetime.” The report, published online Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry, Lead author Craig Bryan, associate director of the National Center for Veterans’ Studies, said, “We’ve know for a while that [traumatic brain injury, or] TBI is associated with increase suicide risk.” He adds that the data shows “having multiple injuries is even more pernicious.” The study found 21.7 percent of service members with more than one TBI had suicidal thoughts. Just seven percent of service members with one TBI thought of suicide, and “down to nothing for those who didn’t have a TBI.”

HealthDay (5/16, Dallas) explains researchers, over the course of six months, followed 161 patients who suffered multiple TBIs while serving in Iraq. The study revealed “that multiple traumatic brain injuries were associated with a significant increase in depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and severity of concussive symptoms. But only the increase in depression severity predicted an increased risk for suicide, the researchers said.” Bryan explained the knowledge TBI may “make patients even more vulnerable provides new insight for tending to military personnel over the long-term, particularly when they are experiencing added emotional distress in their lives.”

Related Links:

— “Multiple Head Injuries Raise Soldiers’ Suicide Risk, Study Finds, “Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay, May 15, 2013.

In a front-page story, the New York Times (5/16, A1, Dao, Lehren, Subscription Publication) reports on the rise in military suicides, calling the trend “among the most emotionally wrenching – and baffling. Over the course of nearly 12 years and two wars, suicide among active-duty troops has risen steadily, hitting a record of 350 in 2012” – which is “twice as many as a decade before” and more than the number of US troops killed in Afghanistan last year. The Times also says the military may actually be undercounting suicides. But though the Defense Department “has commissioned numerous reports and invested tens of millions of dollars in research and prevention programs, experts concede they are little closer to understanding the root causes of why military suicide is rising so fast.”

A second article in the New York Times (5/16, A14, Dao, Lehren, Subscription Publication) explains the Department of Defense’s defense that the “military’s suicide rate was still lower than the rate for civilians of comparable age, sex and race” may be false. However, Bob Anderson, head statistician for mortality statistics at the CDC, believes the Pentagon’s calculations “underestimate the mortality rate.” By using data counts the active military troops in addition to the number of Guard and reserve troops kept on active duty even for just a day, as the Pentagon does, results in an active military population of 1.67 million in 2009. However, using statistics that require National Guard and reserve troops to serve on active duty for at least six months, the population is reduced to 1.42 million. Using the revised data, it amounts “to be about 21 suicides per 100,000, significantly above the adjusted civilian rate.”

Related Links:

— “Baffling Rise in Suicides Plagues the U.S. Military, “James Dao, The New York Times, May 15, 2013.