CQ (5/14, Scully, Subscription Publication) reports that each year, Congress approves “an unknown sum of money” on efforts to reduce the military’s suicide rate, which has doubled over the past decade. However, this means Congress is funding over 900 programs, and now officials are trying to discover which programs are working and which aren’t. Despite efforts to reduce suicides, the “rate has grown from 10.3 to 18.3 out of every 100,000 persons during the past decade.” It is feared that the “shear number of separate suicide prevention initiatives” means the Pentagon or Congress lacks a “coherent strategy to deal with the problem beyond simply throwing money at it.” Defense officials saw a minor decline in suicides to around 300 a year in 2010 and 2011, but “preliminary figures for 2012 indicate that the rate climbed once again to about 349.” The DoD’s Defense Suicide Prevention Office plans to inventory the programs and their costs by Oct. 1.

HealthDay (5/11, Gordon) reported, “Nearly 10 percent of teenagers experience some form of violence in their dating relationships, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dating violence encompasses physical, emotional and sexual abuse, the CDC notes.” HealthDay added, “A study in the January issue of Pediatrics found that teens who had experienced dating violence were more likely to binge drink, smoke, have depression symptoms, think about suicide and experience additional intimate partner violence than were their peers who’d never experienced dating violence.”

People In Same-Sex Relationships May Also Suffer From Abuse. HealthDay (5/11, Gordon) reported, “Though many teens find it difficult to talk about dating violence or abuse, the shroud of secrecy may be even harder to get through for same-sex couples.” The article went on to recount the experiences of one New York woman who was involved in an abusive relationship with a female partner.

Related Links:

— “When Teen Dating Turns Abusive and Violent, “Serena Gordon, HealthDay, May 11, 2013.

In a New York Times (5/13, Stuckler, Basu, Subscription Publication) op-ed headlined “How Austerity Kills,” Sanjay Basu of Stanford’s Prevention Research Center and Oxford sociology researcher David Stuckler write that in their new book on austerity, they “estimate that 4,750 ‘excess’ suicides – that is, deaths above what pre-existing trends would predict – occurred from 2007 to 2010” in the US. They say a “correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since the 19th century.” They argue that austerity measures have extended and increased unemployment, and thus deserve some of the blame.

Related Links:

— “How Austerity Kills, “David Stuckler, The New York Times, May 12, 2013.

NBC Nightly News (5/9, story 9, 0:25, Williams) reported, “New numbers on memory loss raising concerns of a full blown Alzheimer’s crisis for the generation now entering middle age. One in eight Americans over 60 now report increasing memory loss.”

Bloomberg News (5/9, Armour) reported, “About one-third of those Americans also said they had functional difficulties including the ability to work or do household chores, according to a report…from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” published in the May 10 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. However, “only 19 percent of the people with memory loss or confusion discussed their problems with a health-care provider.” The findings come “from a 2011 survey of almost 60,000 people in 21 states, the CDC said.”

Related Links:

— “One in 8 Americans at Least 60 Report Memory Loss, “Stephanie Armour, Bloomberg News, May 9, 2013.

Medscape (5/9, Canavan) reports that according to the results of a 524-patient study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting, “nearly a third of children and adolescents screened in an emergency department program are at risk for suicide, and of these, 17% report knowledge of a gun in or around their home.” The study’s author, Stephen Teach, MD, of the Children’s National Medical Center, stated, “Nearly half of youth suicides involve firearms, and 90% of individuals who attempt suicide with guns kill themselves.”