The New York Times (12/14, A22, Subscription Publication) editorializes, “As Americans debate how the country should respond to gun violence, they should not lose sight of the biggest category of firearm deaths: suicides.” Although “no policy or education campaign is going to prevent every suicide,” the Times argues that “that is no excuse for failing to save as many people as we can by improving gun safety and by protecting” those “who are a danger to themselves.”

Related Links:

— “To Reduce Suicides, Keep the Guns Away,” New York Times, December 14, 2015.

Congressional Quarterly (12/11, Zanona, Subscription Publication) reported that HR 4153 “would establish a three-year pilot program providing grants for middle schools to screen students for conditions such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa, as well as educate teachers, counselors, nurses and parents about identifying risk factors and symptoms.” The aim of the legislation “is to test the effects of early intervention – an issue about which bill supporters contend there is insufficient data.”

Related Links:

— Congressional Quarterly (requires login and subscription)

In an investigatory piece conducted in conjunction with Reuters, NBC Nightly News (12/13, story 7, 4:20, Snow) reported that the number of infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome “has risen five-fold over the last dozen years.” Under a Federal law, “hospitals are supposed to report” such newborns “to protective services.” But, “despite the federal law, Reuters and NBC identified over 100 cases in the last five years when” babies of mothers who “used opioids…died preventable deaths after being sent home.”

Former Pennsylvania Congressman Jim Greenwood, who “sponsored the law to protect” such infants, placed the onus of enforcement on “the Secretary of Health and Human Services.” NBC News correspondent Cynthia McFadden said, “The Secretary of Health and Human Services declined our repeated request for an interview.”

Related Links:

— “Newborns Die After Going Home With Moms Fighting Drug Addiction,” Duff Wilson and John Schiffman, NBC Nightly News, December 7, 2015.

The Washington Post (12/11, Ingraham) “Wonkblog” reports that data released this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that “America’s teenagers and young adults are much less likely to drive drunk than they used to be.” According to the CDC, between 2002 and 2014 “the prevalence of driving under the influence of alcohol alone and alcohol and marijuana combined significantly declined among persons aged 16–20 years and 21–25 years.” Specifically, “among 16- to 20-year-olds, the drunk driving rate fell 59 percent” and “among the 21 to 25 set, the rate fell by 38 percent.”

Related Links:

— “Good news, America! There are fewer drunk teens on the road today.,” Christopher Ingraham, , December 10, 2015.

On its front page, the New York Times (12/11, A1, Schwarz, Subscription Publication) reports in a nearly 1,300-word story on the “rapid” rise of cases in which youngsters “age two or younger are prescribed psychiatric medications to address alarmingly violent or withdrawn behavior.”

Figures from the prescription data company IMS Health reveal that nearly “20,000 prescriptions for risperidone (commonly known as Risperdal), quetiapine (Seroquel) and other antipsychotic medications were written in 2014 for children two and younger, a 50 percent jump from 13,000 just one year before.

Many physicians are concerned that these medications, which are “designed for adults and only warily accepted for certain school-age youngsters, are being used to treat children still in cribs despite no published research into their effectiveness and potential health risks for children so young.” Some experts attribute the increased use of psychiatric medications in kids of all ages to the “scarcity of child psychiatrists.”

Related Links:

— “Still in a Crib, Yet Being Given Antipsychotics,” Alan Schwarz, New York Times, December 10, 2015.