USA Today (8/25, Healy) reports that according to a new policy statement issued today and published online in the journal Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics “says delaying the start of high school and middle school classes to 8:30 a.m. or later is ‘an effective countermeasure to chronic sleep loss’ and the ‘epidemic’ of delayed, insufficient, and erratic sleep patterns among the nation’s teens.” Notably, “other major health organizations, including the American Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have all highlighted insufficient sleep in adolescents as a serious health risk, as has US Education Secretary Arne Duncan,” explained Terra Ziporyn Snider, executive director of the group Start School Later.

The AP (8/25, Tanner) points out that research has “found that most US students in middle school and high school don’t get the recommended amount of sleep – 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 hours on school nights; and that most high school seniors get an average of less than seven hours.” The “evidence on potential dangers for teens who get too little sleep is ‘extremely compelling’ and includes depression, suicidal thoughts, obesity, poor performance in school and on standardized tests and car accidents from drowsy driving, said Dr. Judith Owens, the policy’s lead author and director of sleep medicine at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC.”

Related Links:

— “Docs urge delayed school start times for teens,” Michelle Healy, USA Today, August 25, 2014.

The New York Times (8/24, BU4, Korkki, Subscription Publication) reports that a new study in The American Sociological Review “aimed to see whether the stress of work-life conflicts could be eased if employees had more control over their schedules, including being able to work from home,” finding that “compared with another group that did not have the same flexibility, employees interviewed by the researchers said they felt happier and less stressed, had more energy and were using their time more effectively.”

Study author Erin Kelley “emphasized that for programs like these to be successful, they must be applied department wide and have the full support of managers.” The study was “financed by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Related Links:

— “Yes, Flexible Hours Ease Stress. But Is Everyone on Board?,” Phyllis Korkki, New York Times, August 23, 2014.

In an opinion piece in the Indianapolis Star (8/22), Richard Gunderman, MD, chancellor’s professor at Indiana University, and Mark Mutz, an attorney and consultant, wrote in wake of comedian Robin Williams’ suicide and lifelong struggle against substance abuse, “the president of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Paul Summergrad, was quoted as saying that we must ‘stop seeing these illnesses as faults and blames, and instead see them for what they are: medical conditions, genetic conditions and brain disorders.’”

But, according to Gunderman and Mutz, “it would be a mistake to say that disorders such as depression, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts are simply a reflection of biochemical imbalances and nothing more,” when certain “other factors, such as life experiences, are clearly important.”

Related Links:

— “Factors that lead to suicide are complex, as is life itself,” Richard Gunderman and Mark Mutz, Indianapolis Star, August 22, 2014.

The Tennessean (8/23, Wilemon) reports that a new study in JAMA Psychiatry indicates that “people battling severe depression have greater odds of recovery if they confront their fears through cognitive therapy while taking antidepressants,” and that “odds of recovery improved by as much as 30 percent over those who just took the medicine.” The article notes that the study “was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health.”

Related Links:

— “Vanderbilt research shows cognitive therapy aids depressed,” Tom Wilemon, The Tennessean, August 23, 2014.

NBC News (8/21, Fox) reports on its website that research published in the Journal of Medical Ethics indicates that “more than 600 people traveled to Switzerland to die between 2008 and 2012, and the numbers doubled over those years.” Study author Dr. Saskia Gauthier wrote, “The main reasons were neurological disease (47 percent), followed by cancer (37 percent), rheumatic and cardiovascular disease.”

The New York Times (8/21, Belluck, Subscription Publication) reports that researchers found twenty-one individuals arrived in Switzerland from the United States for an assisted suicide between 2010 and 2012.

Related Links:

— “Seeking Death: ‘Suicide Tourism’ to Switzerland Doubles,” Maggie Fox, NBC News, August 20, 2014.