HealthDay (9/21, Reinberg) reports, “More Americans now commit suicide than die in car crashes, making suicide the leading cause of injury deaths,” according to a study published online Sept. 20 in the American Journal of Public Health. “In addition, over the last 10 years, while the number of deaths from car crashes has declined, deaths from poisoning and falls increased significantly, the researchers” reported. Study author Ian Rockett, a professor of epidemiology at West Virginia University, believes “there may be 20 percent or more unrecognized suicides,” possibly from intentional overdosing on prescription medications.

WebMD (9/21, Warner) reports, “In the study, researchers looked at cause of death data from the National Center for Health Statistics from 2000 to 2009.” They found that “the top five leading causes of injury-related deaths were: suicide, motor vehicle crashes, poisoning, falls, [and] homicide.” The study authors “say the findings demonstrate that suicide is now a global public health issue.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide Now Kills More Americans Than Car Crashes: Study, “Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, September 20, 2012.

MedWire (9/19, Cowen) reports, “Children with a parental history of bipolar disorder (BD) or major depressive disorder (MDD) are at increased risk for any mood or anxiety disorder,” according to a study published in the September issue of the journal Bipolar Disorders. For the study, researchers examined “a total of 376 children, aged 6.0-17.9 years, of whom 139 had a parental history of BD (72 parents), 110 had a parental history of MDD (56 parents), and 127 (controls) had mentally healthy parents.” Investigators “also found that children with a parental history of BD were more likely to develop recurrent MDD than the children of parents with MDD and those of mentally healthy parents.”

Related Links:

— “Mood disorder, anxiety risk elevated in children with mood disordered parents, “Mark Cowen, MedWire News, September 19, 2012.

HealthDay (9/19, Dallas) reports that a study published online in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise “found that moderate exercise can help people manage future stress and anxiety, and the emotional and mental health benefits of exercise may last long after a workout ends.” For the study, investigators “compared the effects of 30-minute periods of quiet rest and moderate-intensity cycling on the anxiety levels of healthy college students.” Researchers found that “after viewing 90 stimulating photos from the International Affective Picture System, a database of images used in emotion research, for 20 minutes…only the students who exercised maintained a lower level of anxiety.”

Related Links:

— “Exercise May Prevent Stress and Anxiety, Study Suggests, “Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay, September 18, 2012.

Reuters (9/18) reports on a study published online Sept. 17 in the journal Pediatrics that found that one in every seven high schoolers in Los Angeles with a mobile phone has sent a sexually explicit photo or text message. The study found that the teens who had engaged in “sexting” were seven times more likely to be sexually active than those who never sexted.

The Los Angeles Times (9/18, Lynch) “Nation Now” blog reports that “the study polled more than 1,800 Los Angeles high school-age students. Of those polled, 15% acknowledged sexting, and 54% reported knowing someone who had sent a sext.” Lead researcher Eric Rice said that “there is an emerging sense of normalcy around sexting behavior,” adding that “if you have friends that sext, you are 17 times more likely to sext.”

Related Links:

— ““Sexting” again linked to risky sex among teens, “Genevra Pittman, Reuters, September 17, 2012.

US Medicine (9/18, Basu) reports, “The Army will no longer use forensic psychiatry to evaluate soldiers diagnosed with PTSD in the disability evaluation system, military officials” recently announced. The “announcement came after a firestorm of controversy erupted earlier this year” at the Madigan Army Medical Center. According to US Medicine, a “number of soldiers there had PTSD diagnoses overturned in the disability evaluation system, which used forensic psychiatry methods instead of those typically used in military evaluations.”

Related Links:

— “Army: Forensic Psychiatry No Longer Used for PTSD Disability Evaluations, “Sandra Basu, U.S. Medicine, September 18, 2012.

In continuing coverage, the Deseret (UT) News (9/18, Betar) reports that a new plan proposed by US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin will “focus on making suicide prevention a part of everyday life.” Among other things, the “plan asks community groups, friends and family members to take an active role in suicide prevention, including utilizing Facebook.” The News points out that Veterans Affairs “has hired 1,600 new mental-health workers under an executive order by President Obama.”

VA Using Crisis Line To Prevent Suicides. The KREX-TV Grand Junction, CO (9/17, Dias) website reported, “With September being Suicide Prevention Month, the Department of Veterans Affairs is stepping up its efforts.” Officials with VA are trying to prevent suicides “by providing easily available support right away through their crisis line.” The “important thing is that we know that treatment works and we know that we can intervene at the earliest level of crisis, that goes a long way,” said Sonja Encke, suicide prevention coordinator at the Grand Junction VA. KREX-TV Grand Junction, CO (9/17, 6:19 p.m. MT) aired a similar report.

Related Links:

— “Updated suicide prevention plan integrates social media, increased awareness, “Thomas Betar, Deseret News, September 17, 2012.

The Washington Post (9/18, Huget) “The Checkup” blog reports that a new study “finds that people who harm themselves — by intentionally injuring or poisoning themselves, with or without suicidal intent, according to the study’s definition — remain at greater risk of early death from both natural and external causes for years after their initial self-harming incident.”

MedPage Today (9/18, Phend) reports, “Suicide attempts and other self-harm may point to individuals at high risk for premature death due to overall poor health,” according to a 30,950-person study published online in The Lancet. “The rate of death from natural causes was two- to 7.5-fold higher than expected in people with a history of self-harm,” researchers reported. “While accidental poisoning and suicide were the top causes of death in this group overall, circulatory and digestive diseases were major contributors as well.”

Related Links:

— “Self-Harm Tracks Poor Health,”Crystal Phend, Medpage Today, September 17, 2012.

The AP (9/18) writes that “a new report says substance use and misuse among troops and their families has become a ‘public health crisis’ and that Pentagon methods for dealing with it are out-of-date.” The study, conducted by the Institute of Medicine, was requested by the Defense Department. Among its findings, “about 20 percent of active-duty service members reported they engaged in heavy drinking in 2008, the latest year for which data was available;” “Binge-drinking increased from 35 percent in 1998 to 47 percent in 2008;” and “the rate of medication misuse is rising.” Perhaps most troubling, the report also noted that “the armed forces’ programs and policies have not evolved to effectively address medication misuse and abuse.” One change the report suggested was the use of FDA-approved medication designed to combat addiction.

Related Links:

— “Study: Level of military substance abuse now a ‘public health crisis,’ Pentagon care outdated,”Associated Press, The Washington Post, September 17, 2012.

CNN (9/15, Enayati,) reported that “several recent studies underscore how critically important it is for those fighting” cancer “to learn how to combat stress.” For instance, in a study recently published in PLoS ONE, “a team of researchers led by Lorenzo Cohen, professor of general oncology and director of the Integrative Medicine Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, found that symptoms of depression among a group of patients with late-stage renal cell carcinoma were associated with an increased risk of death.” The primary “suspects in Cohen’s study: cortisol — also known as the ‘stress hormone’ — and inflammatory pathways.”

Related Links:

— “Stress, depression may affect cancer survival, “Amanda Enayati, CNN, September 14, 2012.

HealthDay (9/14, Dallas) reports that adolescents who are “new smokers suffer nearly all of the same negative psychological effects when they try to quit as people who’ve smoked for years,” according to an analysis published online Sept. 4 in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research. Scientists at Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies divided the study population, which ranged in “age from 13 to 19,” into three groups: “22 nonsmokers, 27 smokers who did not change their habit, and 47 smokers who avoided cigarettes for almost a full day.” They noted that the “teen smokers had about nine cigarettes each day for about two years”; and after quitting the habit, the researchers found that the teens “experienced the same withdrawal symptoms, smoking urges, negative mood swings and intense cravings as those recorded in adults.”

Study Links Secondhand Smoke To Memory Problems. HealthDay (9/14, Dallas) reported that secondhand smoke “has a negative effect on brain function,” according to a study published online “recently” in the journal Addiction. Over four and a half years, researchers at Northumbria University in the UK “compared a group of smokers” with one group of nonsmokers “exposed to secondhand smoke either at home or in a ‘smoking area’ for an average of 25 hours a week” and one group of nonsmokers not exposed to secondhand smoke. An “event-based memory test, which focuses on memory for future intentions” showed that nonsmokers in the secondhand smoke group “forgot almost 20 percent more” than did the other nonsmoking group; and smokers forgot “30 percent more than those who were not exposed to secondhand smoke.”

Related Links:

— “Quitting Smoking Just as Hard for Teens: Study, “Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay, September 14, 2012.