NBC News (11/16, Chan) reports “more veterans died by suicide in 2021, the first full year of the pandemic, than the year before, according to new data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.” Roughly “6,390 former service members took their lives in 2021, which is” about “110 more than in 2020, the VA’s latest annual suicide prevention report [PDF] found.” Meanwhile, “the suicide rate among female veterans grew by about 24%, compared to roughly 6% among male veterans, the report said.”

Related Links:

— “Veterans suicides increased in 2021, new VA data shows,”Melissa Chan, NBC News , November 16, 2023

CNN (11/15, Christensen) reports, “The World Health Organization is making loneliness a global health priority, it said Wednesday, launching a new Commission on Social Connection.” Over “the next three years, the commission will focus on ways to address the ‘pressing health threat’ of a global epidemic of loneliness, reviewing the latest science and designing strategies to help people deepen their social connections.” The committee will be “co-chaired by African Union Youth Envoy Chido Mpemba and US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who has written and spoken extensively about the risks of social isolation and has made the issue one of his top concerns while in office.”

Related Links:

— “WHO makes loneliness a global health priority with new Commission on Social Connection,”Jen Christensen, CNN, November 15, 2023

HealthDay (11/15, Foster) says, “As U.S. suicide rates continue to rise, new government data shows older men have become the most susceptible.” A CDC report “found there were about 30 suicide deaths for every 100,000 men aged 55 and older in 2021. That number is more than double the overall rate of just over 14 suicide deaths for every 100,000 people that year.”

Related Links:

— “As Suicide Rates Climb, Older Men Are Most Vulnerable,”Robin Foster, Healthday, November 15, 2023

Neurology Advisor (11/14, Khaja) reports that research indicates that “proton pump inhibitors…usage is associated with an elevated risk for dementia before age 90, regardless of when treatment started based on diagnosis,” and the “risk is escalated with prolonged use of PPIs.” The findings were published in Alzheimer’s Dementia.

Related Links:

— “Proton Pump Inhibitor Use Tied to Elevated Dementia Risk Before Age 90,”Hibah Khaja, Neurology Advisor , November 14, 2023

Healio (11/14, Kellner) reports, “Patients with atopic dermatitis have an increased likelihood of developing anxiety and depression, according to a poster presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting.” In a study, among “respondents seeing an allergist as their primary eczema [clinician], 90.3%…reported experiencing at least 1 day of poor mental health per month. More specifically, 72.6% reported poor mental health symptoms for 1 to 10 days per month, whereas 17.7% reported poor mental health symptoms 11 days or more.”

Related Links:

— “Poor mental health found to be common comorbidity with atopic dermatitis,”Sara Kellner, Healio, November 14, 2023