Bloomberg News (3/12, Cao) reports that according to a survey conducted by the National Safety Council, “About one in seven believe it’s appropriate to share” prescription opioids “with friends and family.” Additionally, 28% believe sharing is “slightly risky,” with “little or no negative consequences,” while 26% believe “it’s a misdemeanor.” Just 32% realize it’s a felony, “punishable by at least a year in jail.”

Related Links:

— “Most Painkiller Users Don’t Know Opioid Sharing Is Felony,” Jing Cao, Bloomberg News, March 11, 2015.

HealthDay (3/12, Preidt) reports on a study (3/12) of people who hear “voices” published in the Lancet Psychiatry. The study covered “127 people who had been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder and 26 others with no history of mental illness.” The study, led by Angela Woods of Durham’s Center for Medical Humanities, consisted of an online questionnaire. Eighty-one percent attested to hearing multiple voices, while two-thirds of those responding also recounted “physical effects from the voices, such as hot or tingling sensations in their hands and feet.”

The surveys also showed that while most had negative associations with the voices, “31 percent of the participants also felt positive emotions.” In addition, 45 percent of respondents said that the voices were not “purely auditory” but were “thought-like or ‘in-between’ voices with both thought-like and auditory features.”

Related Links:

— “Study Highlights Complexity of ‘Hearing Voices’,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 11, 2015.

The New York Times (3/9) “Well” blog reports that a new study, published in JAMA, suggests using benzodiazepine drugs “to relieve anxiety before surgery” have “little beneficial effect and may even delay recovery.” The researchers observed 1,062 “patients admitted to French hospitals for surgery requiring general anesthesia.” One-third “took 2.5 milligrams of lorazepam (Ativan), a third received a placebo, and a third were given no premedication.” They found lorazepam “was associated with more postsurgery amnesia” as well as a delay in recovery of cognitive abilities. Additionally, “quality of sleep was impaired in the lorazepam group, but not in the others” and “ventilation tubes were kept in significantly longer in the lorazepam group.”

Related Links:

— “A Time to Avoid Anxiety Drugs,” Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times, March 9, 2015.

The Washington Times (3/10, Klimas) reports that according to Defense Department data released Monday, suicides “for the first three quarters of 2014 are down among members of the National Guard and reserves.” According to the data, “suicides among National Guardsmen decreased 30 percent compared to 2013.” Between January and September 2014, 68 National Guardsmen committed suicide, “down from 97 over that same time period the previous year.” Similarly, reservists saw “about a 12 percent decrease.” In the first three quarters of 2014, 58 reservists committed suicide, “down from 66 over the same time period in 2013.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide down among reservists, National Guardsmen: report,” Jacqueline Klimas, Washington Times, March 9, 2015.

TIME (3/10, Worland) reports that research published in JAMA Pediatrics indicates that “young people who live in rural areas kill themselves at twice the rate as youth who live in cities.” While “there aren’t clear-cut explanations for suicide…geographical differences seem to play a role, the researchers found.” Those residing “in rural areas have less access to mental health services, more stigma surrounding help-seeking and freer access to guns than their urban counterparts.”

In the Washington Post (3/9, Bernstein) “To Your Health” blog, Lenny Bernstein writes that the investigators “examined 66,595 suicides by people ages 10 to 24 between 1996 and 2010.” The researchers “found suicide rates of 19.93 per 100,000 for males and 4.4 per 100,00 for females in rural areas, compared to 10.31 per 100,000 for males and 2.39 per 100,000 for females in urban areas.”

Related Links:

— “This Is Where Young People Are More Likely to Commit Suicide,” Justin Worland, Time, March 9, 2015.