USA Today (7/18, Zoroya) reports that a paper published online July 17 in the journal Current Psychiatric Reports has found “an indirect link between deployment, combat and self-destructive urges” among Afghanistan and Iraq veterans. The report concludes that “high rates of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder flowing out of the combat experience can lead to suicidal behavior.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Indirect link between combat and suicide risk,” Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, July 17, 2014.

Scientific American (7/17, Yuhas) reports that a study published online July 16 in the journal Neurology reveals that even a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) may affect brain matter and cognition. The study’s findings “hint that the contusions leave a lasting trace in the brain.”
The Fox News (7/17, Kwan) website reports that researchers arrived at that conclusion after “working with a group of 44 people with mild TBI, nine people with moderate TBI and a control group of 33 healthy” matched individuals to whom they “administered DTI scans within one week of injury,” along with “the Glasgow Coma Scale (GSC) test to measure cognition.”

HealthDay (7/17, Preidt) reports that according to a review recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “taking B vitamins does not slow age-related mental decline or prevent Alzheimer’s disease.” After analyzing “data on 22,000 people who took part in 11 clinical trials that examined the effect of B vitamins on mental abilities in older people,” researchers found that even though “taking B vitamins did lower homocysteine levels by about one-fourth, this reduction had no effect on thinking skills.”

Related Links:

— “Vitamin B No Help for Alzheimer’s: Review,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 16, 2014.

The Los Angeles Times (7/17, Morin) reports in “Science Now” that according to a study published online July 16 in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, “smoking and suicide may be more closely related than previously thought.”

HealthDay (7/17, Preidt) reports that the study found that “smoking may increase a person’s risk for suicide, but high cigarette taxes and smoking restrictions in public places lower that risk.” After analyzing “suicide rates across the United States between 1990 and 2004,” researchers found that “states that introduced higher taxes on cigarettes and stricter rules to limit smoking in public places saw suicide rates decline up to 15 percent, relative to the national average.”

Related Links:

— “Smoking may increase suicide risk, study says,” Monte Morin, Los Angeles Times, July 16, 2014.

On its “Morning Edition” program and in its “The Salt” blog, NPR (7/15, Aubrey) reports on the complex connection between food and mood. Researcher Joe Hibbeln, of the National Institutes of Health, said, “I think there’s a very strong connection between what you eat and your mood.”

Hibbeln pointed to “studies showing that omega-3s can help protect neurons against the damage that can be done by chronic stress” and to other studies “that have found that omega-3s may help control depressive symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “Food-Mood Connection: How You Eat Can Amp Up Or Tamp Down Stress,” Allison Aubrey, National Public Radio, July 14, 2014.