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.

TIME (11/12, Luscombe) reports that a study published online Nov. 11 in JAMA Psychiatry reveals that children “whose parents die while they are young are more likely to commit suicide later in life than kids whose parents survive until they are adults.” After examining “government data on 7.3 million kids from Denmark, Sweden and Finland,” researchers found that youngsters “who lost a parent were twice as likely to commit suicide as the control group, especially if they were boys.”

Related Links:

— “Kids Who Lose a Parent More Likely to Commit Suicide,” Belinda Luscombe, Time, November 11, 2015.

The Los Angeles Times (11/11, Rivera) reported that some college campuses “are adopting new tools that outline common situations and ways to respond” to students in mental distress, “such as the Red Folder, a quick reference guide developed at the University of California that is being adopted by the 23-campus California State University system and many community colleges.” The point “is to distill information from more detailed training into a set of simple actions – see something, say something, do something.” That initiative receives partial funding from “Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act approved by California voters in 2004 to expand such services through a 1% tax on incomes at or above $1 million.”

Related Links:

— “California colleges step up efforts to help students in mental distress,” Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times, November 10, 2015.

According to the Texas Tribune (11/11, Silver), a report released Nov. 10 by the Death Penalty Information Center and called “Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty” finds that “veterans sentenced to death in Texas murder cases – and nationwide – might have escaped the punishment if juries had been told about their military service and any ensuing mental health problems.” In the report, “several examples” are cited of “veterans who have been executed or sentenced to death in Texas with little or no consideration of their mental state.”

Related Links:

— “Report: Veteran Mental Health Ignored in Capital Cases,” Johnathan Silver, Texas Tribune, November 10, 2015.

In a nearly 2,000-word article, the Chicago Tribune (11/11, Taylor) reports that “a growing body of research is exploring links among sleep deprivation, sleep disturbance and Alzheimer’s disease.” For example, Dr. Erik Musiek, an assistant professor of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis, “said new research suggests that sleep and circadian rhythm problems experienced earlier in life actually may contribute to the risk of Alzheimer’s and accelerate the disease.”

In addition, a PET scan study of 70 seniors conducted at Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Aging revealed that people who reported “poorer sleep quality and shorter sleep duration had higher amounts of beta-amyloid in their brains than those who reported sleeping longer and better.”

Related Links:

— [Free Registration Required] “Sleep Could be the Missing Link in Dementia,” Mark Taylor, Chicago Tribune, November 10, 2015.