HealthDay (8/15, Preidt) reports that according to a study published online Aug. 14 in the American Journal of Public Health, “when large numbers of workers lose their jobs, suicide attempts increase among certain groups of teens.” After analyzing “the results of a survey of more than 403,000 American teens conducted from 1997 to 2009, along with nationwide data about layoffs,” researchers “found that when one percent of a state’s workers lost their jobs, suicide attempts and other suicide-related behaviors jumped two…to three percent among girls during the following year.”

Related Links:

— “Worker Layoffs Tied to Rise in Teen Suicides, Study Finds,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 14, 2014.

Major television networks, newspapers, wire sources and Internet media outlets continue coverage of comedian and actor Robin Williams’ suicide, focusing on the revelation by his widow, Susan Schneider, that Williams was in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease, but he was not yet ready to share his diagnosis with the public.

ABC World News (8/14, story 3, 2:20, Muir) reported that Susan Schneider released “a statement thanking everyone for the outpouring of good wishes, but she added something else, revealing that Robin Williams had received a Parkinson’s diagnosis.” In another segment on ABC World News (8/14, story 4, 0:30, Muir), senior medical contributor Jennifer Ashton, MD reported that it is “very difficult to treat depression in a patient with Parkinson’s, but there is excellent treatment now and there is reason for hope.”

The New York Times (8/14, Sanger-Katz, Subscription Publication) reports in “The Upshot” that “there’s a strong body of evidence that suicide is…contagious,” and that “publicity surrounding a suicide has been repeatedly and definitively linked to a subsequent increase in suicide, especially among young people.”

For that reason, “suicide prevention advocates have developed guidelines for news media coverage of suicide deaths.” The goal is not to glamorize suicide “or to make it seem like a simple or inevitable solution for people who are at risk.”

Related Links:

— “The Science Behind Suicide Contagion,” Margot Sanger-Katz, New York Times, August 13, 2014.

NBC Nightly News (8/13, story 6, 2:25, Holt) reported in the aftermath of the suicide of comedian and actor Robin Williams on “an outpouring for people who face similar struggles with depression and suicide.” Correspondent Kate Snow was shown saying, “People struggling with depression turned to social media, strangers supporting each other sharing deeply personal stories.” Snow emphasized the importance of the “dialogue about suicide that’s happening because of Robin Williams,” citing her own personal experience with the loss of a family member to suicide.

The Washington Post (8/14, Kunkle) reports that a study published online Aug. 13 in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that “difficulty sleeping may contribute to a risk of suicide in older adults.” The study “examined data on 420 people who were an average of about 75 years old and living in the community.” The participants, made up of “400 control patients and 20 who died by suicide…were tracked over a 10 year period.”

The Boston Globe (8/14, Rice) mentions the study’s findings and adds that “according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, sleep complaints are actually one of the top 10 warning signs for suicide.”

Related Links:

— “Poor sleep appears linked to higher suicide risk in older adults, study shows,” Fredrick Kunkle, Washington Post, August 13, 2014.