The New York Times (3/17, Parker-Pope) reports in its “Well” blog that research published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science reveals “just how bad loneliness and social isolation, even for people who prefer their own company, can be for health.” After analyzing “data collected from 70 studies and more than 3.4 million people from 1980 to 2014,” researchers found that “people who were socially isolated, lonely or living alone had about a 30 percent higher chance of dying during a given study period than those who had regular social contact.” In addition, “the effect was greater for younger people than for those over 65,” the study found.

Related Links:

— “The Toll of a Solitary Life,”Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times, March 16, 2015.

The Boston Globe (3/17, Rocheleau) reports that “the rate of student suicide at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology continues to be notably higher than the national average for college campuses.” Over the past 10 years, “the university’s student suicide rate has been 10.2 per 100,000 students, according to a Globe review of public records as well as university and media reports,” compared to the US “national average for college campuses” of “roughly between 6.5 and 7.5 suicides per 100,000 students.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide rate at MIT higher than national average,”Matt Rocheleau, The Boston Globe, March 17, 2015.

The Salt Lake (UT) Tribune (3/17, McDonald) reports that “treating depression may be just as important for your heart as taking care of high cholesterol,” according to a study conducted by researchers at Intermountain Healthcare. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after analyzing “patient records and rates of death, coronary artery disease and stroke for more than 26,000 patients treated by Intermountain over a three-year period,” then comparing data “to records for 5,311 patients identified as having moderate to severe depression based on a nine-question depression screening, which assessed factors such as mood, sleep and appetite.”

Related Links:

— “Utah study: Treating your depression helps your heart,”Amy McDonald, The Salt Lake Tribune, March 17, 2015.

The Boston Globe (3/14, Weintraub) reported that research published online March 4 in the journal Heart indicated that “men who were anxious in their late teens were twice as likely to die from heart attacks four decades later.” The study, which involved 237,980 men, “confirms that anxiety can have lasting health effects and that people who are naturally high strung have to try harder than most to make themselves resilient to stress, said Scott Montgomery, the study’s lead author.”

Related Links:

— “High-stress teens beware of later heart ills,”Karen Weintraub, The Boston Globe, March 13, 2015.

The Baltimore Sun (3/13) reported that a recent study published last month in the journal Neurobiology of Disease “adds to growing evidence linking football with brain damage.” Results of the study, in which Johns Hopkins researchers examined retired NFL players, “add to a growing body of research and anecdotal accounts associating brain disease with the blows to the head that are a common part of football and other sports.”

Related Links:

— “Imaging study looks at brain injury in former NFL players,”Arthur Hirsch, The Baltimore Sun, March 13, 2015.