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Report: Youth Overdose Death Rate Increased Dramatically In US From 1999 To 2013
A number of news outlets based in different parts of the country cover the release of a new report, which found that from 1999 to 2013, there was a large increase in overdose deaths among teenagers and young adults in the US.
USA Today (11/20, Thadani) reports that 35 US “states saw youth drug overdose deaths increase dramatically” during the time period analyzed in the Trust for America’s Health report. The organization’s report found that in “five states – Kansas, Montana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Wyoming – the overdose death rates more than quadrupled.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer (11/20, Sapatkin) reports, “Pennsylvania leads the nation – and New Jersey is fourth – in drug overdose deaths among young adult men, according” to the Trust for America’s Health report. The report, the Inquirer adds, raises “the level of urgency about an epidemic that over the last decade has killed more than twice as many Americans as homicide.”
Related Links:
— “Report: Youth drug overdose deaths up in 35 states over a decade,” Trisha Thadani, USA Today, November 20, 2015.
Stimulant Medications May Increase Vulnerability To PTSD, Study Suggests
The Los Angeles Times (11/19, Zarembo) reported, “Stimulant medications used to treat” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “and keep service members alert during long stretches of combat might increase vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD],” according to a study published online Nov. 4 in the Journal of Traumatic Stress. Researchers arrived at the study’s conclusions after tracking “25,971 active-duty troops who screened negative for PTSD…from 2001 to 2008.” After controlling for confounding factors, investigators found that service members “with prescriptions for the stimulants were five times more likely to have PTSD.”
Related Links:
— “Pentagon study links prescription stimulants to military PTSD risk,” Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2015.
Viewing Violent Events Through News Coverage, Social Media May Cause Psychological Distress
The CBS News (11/16, Welch) website reported in light of Friday evening’s terrorist attacks in Paris that although “survivors, witnesses and first responders of such violent events often struggle with post traumatic stress disorder… viewing images and videos of these violent events through news coverage and social media can affect people who weren’t there in similar ways.”
Robert Ursano, MD, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Psychiatric Dimensions of Disasters, told CBS News, “The more similarities you see between you and the victims, the more things that remind you of ‘it could be like me,’ the higher your level of psychological distress.” People who were not at the scene of the attacks “may still experience responses like depression and generalized anxiety disorder, as well as psychological distress, which includes sleep disturbances, desire to stay at home and avoidance of reminders of the trauma, Ursano explained.”
Related Links:
— “Watching news coverage of Paris attacks may take toll on viewers,” Ashley Welch, CBS News, November 16, 2015.
Moderate Coffee Drinking Associated With Lower Risk Of Death From Certain Conditions, Including Suicide
CBS News (11/16, Welch) reports on a study published in Circulation based on data covering “almost 168,000 women and over 40,000 men,” some of them for up to 30 years, finding that those who drank fewer that five cups of coffee daily “had a lower risk of deaths from cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases, type 2 diabetes and suicide.”
NBC News (11/16, Fox) reports that the study found that those “who drink regular, moderate amounts of coffee are less likely to die from a range of diseases, from diabetes to heart disease.” It also found no additional benefit beyond five cups per day and that the benefit appeared whether the coffee was regular or decaffeinated. The study found that people who drank coffee regularly were also more likely to smoke. Coffee drinkers who did not smoke were “between 8 and 15 percent less likely to die,” than non-coffee drinkers. The study did not identify whether coffee drinkers added cream, milk, or sugar to their coffee. The authors suggested that antioxidants may play a role, but said that the chief finding is that coffee drinking is not harmful.
Related Links:
Eviction Tied To Higher Likelihood Of Committing Suicide
Reuters (11/14, Doyle) reported that people who undergo eviction from their homes may have a four times higher likelihood of committing suicide, according to a study published online Nov. 4 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. In arriving at this conclusion, researchers examined data on some 22,000 households in Sweden during the years 2009 to 2012, then compared the data with data on a random sample of 10 percent of the general adult population of Sweden.
Related Links:
— “Eviction ups risk of suicide,” Kathryn Doyle, Reuters, November 13, 2015.
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