HealthDay (4/17, Preidt) reports that a new study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) suggests that “nearly one in 10 full-time workers in the United States has had a recent substance abuse problem.” Specifically, an “analysis of data gathered between 2008 and 2012 from more than 111,500 adults with full-time jobs revealed that 9.5 percent of them had an alcohol or illicit-drug disorder in the previous year.” Commenting on the study, SAMHSA Administrator Pamela Hyde said, “Every segment of the community needs to help tackle this problem, including employers.” Hyde added, “By developing and actively promoting workplace programs such as Employee Assistance Programs for helping employees deal with substance use problems, employers can significantly improve the health, well-being, and productivity of their employees.”

Related Links:

— “Substance Abuse Reported by About 1 in 10 American Workers,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 6, 2015.

HealthDay (4/16, Preidt) reports that a study recently published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse “identifies factors that increase teens’ risk of using hashish,” and the investigators, affiliated with NYU’s Center for Drug Use and HIV Research, “found that the risk factors for regular marijuana use were often much stronger risk factors for using hashish.” They found that other “robust risk factor[s]” were the use of other illicit drugs or alcohol and cigarette smoking. HealthDay adds that the study was based on “data gathered from more than 10,500 high school seniors across the United States between 2007 and 2011.”

Related Links:

— “1 in 10 U.S. Teens Has Tried Hashish,” Robert Preidt, Health Day, April 15, 2015.

NPR (4/15) reports in its “Shots” blog that “studies show that young people often hesitate to get certain types of medical care, such as mental and behavioral health care, birth control and sexual health screenings, because they don’t want their parents to find out through insurance statements.” Several states are working to rectify the problem “but none has a foolproof solution.” Abigail English, president of the Center for Adolescent Health and the Law, says the “issue of maintaining confidentiality while a dependent is one that has existed for a long time” and is just now receiving attention because of the increase in dependents under the ACA.

Related Links:

— “When Keeping A Secret Trumps The Need For Care,” Maanvi Singh, National Public Radio, April 15, 2015.

The Education Week (4/16, Mader) “Rural Education” blog reports that researchers at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found after analyzing “data from 1996 to 2010 from the National Center for Health Statistics” that “suicide rates among youth ages 10 to 24 are nearly twice as high in rural communities than in urban areas.”

The authors said “isolation and lack of access to health care, especially mental health care,” were factors, and they suggested that school-based programs would improve access to care. The piece mentions other recent studies exploring the problem in Alaska and on Native American reservations. The study (4/16) appeared online March 9 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Study: Youth Suicide Rates Higher in Rural Areas,” Jackie Mader , Education Week, April 15, 2015.

The Washington Post (4/16, Svrluga) reports on the suicide Monday of a sophomore at the College of William & Mary, illustrating how the incident, the fourth this year at the Virginia university, raises “concerns about the challenges college students handle on a daily basis and the mental health struggles students can face.” The article notes that William & Mary’s associate vice president for health and wellness “cautioned that it is easy to over-connect academic stress and the risk of suicide,” and that a history of mental health issues was a better predictor for suicide.

Related Links:

— “Suicide at William & Mary, fourth student death this year, triggers concern,” Susan Svrluga, Washington Post, April 15, 2015.