The Hill (8/4, Migdon) reports New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) “signed two bills Friday restricting access to transition-related care in the state, which already prohibits rare genital surgeries for minors to transition.” The first bill “prohibits doctors from administering puberty blockers and hormones to transgender youth starting Jan. 1,” while the second “bars adolescents younger than 18 from undergoing certain procedures when they are used to treat gender dysphoria.” The move makes New Hampshire “the first Northeastern state to ban gender-affirming health care for minors.”

Related Links:

— “New Hampshire becomes first Northeastern state to ban gender-affirming care for minors,”Brooke Migdon, The Hill, August 4, 2025

The AP (8/1, Stobbe) reported a federal health official confirmed last week that experts from “more than a half-dozen of the nation’s top medical organizations” were “disinvited from the workgroups that have been the backbone of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The organizations include the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.” In a joint statement Friday, the AMA and several organizations said: “To remove our deep medical expertise from this vital and once transparent process is irresponsible, dangerous to our nation’s health, and will further undermine public and clinician trust in vaccine.

Related Links:

— “AMA and other medical associations are kicked out of CDC vaccine workgroups,”Mike Stobbe , AP, August 1, 2025

HealthDay (8/1, Mundell) reported a study suggests that when a community’s homicide rates rise, “there’s typically a local uptick in suicides a year later.” The researchers “tracked 50 years’ worth of data – from 1968 through 2019 – for homicides and suicides in counties across 48 U.S. states. The main finding: A one-point rise in homicides in a county during one year was linked to an average 3.6% rise in suicides the following year.” Moreover, the trend intensified when homicides and suicides were due to “a gun: A one-point rise in gun-related killings was linked to a 5.7% rise in gun-related suicides the following year. The murder-suicide link was more pronounced in rural versus urban communities, and among white people versus Black Americans, although Black Americans were not unaffected, the researchers said.” The study was published in Social Science & Medicine.

Related Links:

— “When Local Homicide Rates Rise, Suicides Rise Soon After,”Ernie Mundell , HealthDay, August 1, 2025

Psychiatric News (8/1) reported a study found that “an intervention focused on emotion regulation can help” teens and young adults with autism “significantly reduce their daily impairments to living.” Researchers observed that after 16 weeks, youth who participated in “Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement (EASE), a 16-module program rooted in mindfulness that teaches individuals to become more aware of and better regulate their emotions,” had “significantly greater improvements in symptoms related to emotion regulation than the active control group. Overall, 63% of EASE participants showed strong improvements in their daily functioning, compared with 44% receiving the active control.” Furthermore, “EASE participants also showed statistically significant improvements in internalizing and externalizing symptoms from baseline, whereas only the latter improved in the active control group.” The study was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Emotion Regulation Therapy Is Effective for Teens and Young Adults With Autism , Psychiatric News, August 1, 2025

The New York Times (7/31, Shakin) reports that “a major study of the health of transgender and gender nonconforming young people is set to begin later this year in Britain.” Researchers from King’s College London “plan to track the mental and physical well-being of up to 3,000 children and teenagers who have a gender identity that differs from their sex at birth, and who have sought treatment from the country’s National Health Service. They will carry out annual surveys that look at their quality of life, body image and gender identity.” The study, funded by the NHS and the UK government’s clinical research agency, is “part of a wider 10.7 million pound, or about $14 million, initiative from King’s College that aims to find out how Britain’s health service can best support trans and gender nonconforming children and young people.”

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— The New York Times (requires login and subscription)