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