MedPage Today (11/20, Monaco) reports, “Children of parents with infertility had a slightly higher rate of autism spectrum disorder, a population-based cohort study of over 1.3 million children found.” Investigators found that “compared with children born from unassisted conception, parents who experienced subfertility but didn’t undergo fertility treatment had children with a 20% higher risk of autism.” The findingswere published in JAMA Network Open.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (11/20) reports the “APA released a statement…commemorating the life and legacy of Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 96.” During “her public service career, Mrs. Carter worked tirelessly to improve the quality of life for people with mental illness and substance use disorders.” The statement says, “She used her bully pulpit to bring the conversation about mental health out from the darkness and advocate for a more comprehensive system of care.”

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— “APA Remembers the Mental Health Legacy of Rosalynn Carter, Psychiatric News, November 20, 2023

USA Today (11/20, Rodriguez) reports that while the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline “has likely helped millions of people in crisis since its launch in July 2022, mental health experts say the nationwide public health program is far from perfect.” Among the hurdles the lifeline faces are a “lack of stable funding, lack of awareness and the absence of mental health resources.” These “have prevented the lifeline from realizing its full potential, experts say.”

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— “An epic challenge: Running the 988 crisis line as the US suicide rate rises,”Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY, November 20, 2023

CNN International (11/17, Rogers) reported climate change “is a potentially lethal threat” for “people with mental health problems such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or anxiety.” In June 2021, “during a record-breaking heat wave in British Columbia…8% of people who died from the extreme heat had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, according to a March study. That made the disorder a more dangerous risk factor than all other conditions the authors studied, including kidney disease and coronary artery disease.” American Psychiatric Association Representative to the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health Robert Feder, MD, said, “Until climate change gets under control, things are only going to get worse unfortunately. … As the temperature keeps increasing, these effects are going to be magnified. There’s going to be more storms, more fires, and people are going to be more worried about what could happen because a lot more things are happening.”

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— “As Earth’s temperature rises, so do deaths among people with mental health problems,”Kristen Rogers, CNN, November 17, 2023

The New York Times (11/16, Caron) reports, “Seniors are one of the fastest-growing populations of cannabis users in the United States.” Research indicates some “are turning to the drug for the first time to help them sleep better, dampen pain or treat anxiety – especially when prescription drugs, which often come with unwanted side effects, don’t work as intended.” In 2007, just 0.4 percent of US adults over 65 “reported using cannabis in the past year, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That number rose to almost 3 percent by 2016. As of 2022, it was at more than 8 percent.”

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (11/16, Thompson) reports, “New mothers living in states with generous mandated paid family and medical leave are less likely to experience postpartum depression, a…study indicates.” In the study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers found “women living in the eight states with the most generous paid family leave had a 9% greater chance of breastfeeding at six months postpartum, compared to the 26 states with little to no paid leave.”

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— “Paid Family Leave May Lower Odds for Postpartum Depression,”Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, November 16, 2023

Psychiatric News (11/16) reports “anxiety and depression among pregnant mothers” were “associated with a greater risk of internalizing and externalizing symptoms among their children even after controlling for the child’s genetic risk for mental” illnesses, “according to a study.” The researchers “found that prenatal maternal depression and anxiety was associated with the child’s internalizing, externalizing, and total emotional symptoms across all ages tested.” The findings were published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

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— “Prenatal Anxiety, Depression Associated With MH Symptoms in Children, Independent of Genetic Risk, Psychiatric News, November 16, 2023

NBC News (11/16, Chan) reports “more veterans died by suicide in 2021, the first full year of the pandemic, than the year before, according to new data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.” Roughly “6,390 former service members took their lives in 2021, which is” about “110 more than in 2020, the VA’s latest annual suicide prevention report [PDF] found.” Meanwhile, “the suicide rate among female veterans grew by about 24%, compared to roughly 6% among male veterans, the report said.”

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— “Veterans suicides increased in 2021, new VA data shows,”Melissa Chan, NBC News , November 16, 2023

CNN (11/15, Christensen) reports, “The World Health Organization is making loneliness a global health priority, it said Wednesday, launching a new Commission on Social Connection.” Over “the next three years, the commission will focus on ways to address the ‘pressing health threat’ of a global epidemic of loneliness, reviewing the latest science and designing strategies to help people deepen their social connections.” The committee will be “co-chaired by African Union Youth Envoy Chido Mpemba and US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who has written and spoken extensively about the risks of social isolation and has made the issue one of his top concerns while in office.”

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— “WHO makes loneliness a global health priority with new Commission on Social Connection,”Jen Christensen, CNN, November 15, 2023

HealthDay (11/15, Foster) says, “As U.S. suicide rates continue to rise, new government data shows older men have become the most susceptible.” A CDC report “found there were about 30 suicide deaths for every 100,000 men aged 55 and older in 2021. That number is more than double the overall rate of just over 14 suicide deaths for every 100,000 people that year.”

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— “As Suicide Rates Climb, Older Men Are Most Vulnerable,”Robin Foster, Healthday, November 15, 2023