CNN (11/15, McPhillips) reports, “The suicide rate in the United States spiked in 2021, reversing two years of decline, and rates among older men were especially high, a new report says.” The report from the CDC indicates that there were approximately “30 suicide deaths for every 100,000 men ages 55 and older in 2021…more than double the overall age-adjusted rate of about 14 suicide deaths for every 100,000 people that year.” The data indicated that “men 85 and older were the most at risk, with nearly 56 suicide deaths for every 100,000 people in that group, higher than any other age group.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide rates in the US are highest among elderly men, and most involve guns, CDC report says,”Deidre McPhillips, CNN, November 15, 2023

MedPage Today (11/13, George) reports, “People with Parkinson’s disease had twice the average risk of a suicide attempt or death by suicide, a meta-analysis showed.” Investigators found that “across 10 studies, the odds of suicidal behavior were 2.15-fold higher” among patients with Parkinson’s “compared with general population controls.” The findings were published in JAMA Neurology.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (11/13, Paris) reports, “There are more Americans who say they have serious cognitive problems – with remembering, concentrating or making decisions – than at any time in the last 15 years, data from the Census Bureau shows.” Since the pandemic, “the number of working-age adults reporting ‘serious difficulty’ thinking has climbed by an estimated one million people.” This “sharp increase captures the effects of long Covid for a small but significant portion of younger adults, researchers say, most likely in addition to other effects of the pandemic, including psychological distress.” But experts “also say it’s not yet possible to fully dissect all the reasons behind the increase.”

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (11/13) says, “Children who do not develop mental health problems early in life despite exposure to multiple adversities may experience such challenges in early adulthood, suggests a report in The American Journal of Psychiatry,” a publication of the American Psychiatric Association. In the study, “researchers found that compared with children with limited exposure to adversity and no childhood disorders (low-risk/no disorders group), resilient children had nearly 3 times the risk of developing anxiety and 4.5 times the risk of developing depression in adulthood.” Additionally, “the resilient group had worse physical and financial health compared with individuals in the low-risk/no disorders group,” but “had better functioning compared with the group of participants with childhood psychiatric problems in the domains of health and social functioning.”

Related Links:

— “Impacts of Childhood Adversity on Mental Health May Be Delayed for Some Youth, Study Suggests, Psychiatric News, November 13, 2023

CNN (11/13, McPhillips) reports, “Nearly 49 million people in the US ages 12 and older – more than 1 in 6 – had a substance use disorder in 2022, according to survey data released Monday by the US Department of Health and Human Services.” Broken down, “about 30 million people had an alcohol use disorder, and 27 million had a drug use disorder, including about 6 million with [an] opioid use disorder.” Around “8 million people had both alcohol and drug use disorders, the survey found. Substance use disorders were considered severe for more than 1 in 5 people.”

Related Links:

— “More than 1 in 6 US adults and adolescents had a substance use disorder in 2022, federal survey finds,”Deidre McPhillips, CNN, November 13, 2023