MedPage Today (9/4, DePeau-Wilson ) reports, “Having a medical condition was associated with an increased risk of suicide in a dose-response-like manner, such that the higher the burden of disability, the higher the risk of suicide, according to an observational study in Denmark.” An analysis of over “6.6 million people found that nine medical condition categories including 31 specific conditions were associated with a statistically significant increased risk of suicide, with the exception of endocrine disorders.” Researchers found “the associations were most pronounced for gastrointestinal conditions… cancers…and hematological conditions.” The findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry. “ Individuals with mental disorder requiring psychiatric hospital treatment appear to be at such elevated risk of suicide that additional disability associated with medical conditions has little impact in this regard.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (9/3, Monaco ) reports, “Two new studies published in JAMA Internal Medicine do not support a previously reported association between GLP-1 receptor agonists and a signal for suicidal ideation.” In one “analysis of nearly 300,000 new users of a GLP-1 agonist or SGLT2 inhibitor in Sweden and Denmark, primarily for diabetes, rates of suicide death over 2.5 years were not significantly different between groups, reaching 0.23 and 0.18 events per 1,000 person-years, respectively.” In the second study, researchers “pooled data from several of the STEP trials that supported semaglutide’s (Wegovy) weight-loss indication.” The “analysis showed that in STEP 1, 2, and 3, depression scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were lower at study end for patients on a 2.4-mg dose of semaglutide versus placebo recipients.”

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Psychiatric News (9/3) reports “cannabis use disorder and frequent cannabis use are linked to greater absenteeism at work, a study” found. Study “participants who used cannabis in the past month had a mean 1.47 days of missed work because of illness or injury, compared with 0.95 days for those who never used cannabis.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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— “Cannabis Use Linked to Absenteeism at Work, Psychiatric News, September 3, 2024

The New York Times (9/1, Silver-Greenberg , Thomas) reported “Acadia Healthcare is one of America’s largest chains of psychiatric hospitals,” and “since the pandemic exacerbated a national mental health crisis, the company’s revenue has soared.” However, “a New York Times investigation found that some of that success was built on a disturbing practice: Acadia has lured patients into its facilities and held them against their will, even when detaining them was not medically necessary.” According to records, “in at least 12 of the 19 states where Acadia operates psychiatric hospitals, dozens of patients, employees and police officers have alerted the authorities that the company was detaining people in ways that violated the law.” In a number of “cases, judges have intervened to force Acadia to release patients.”

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Psychiatric News (8/30) reported, “A systematic analysis of brain imaging data from nearly 500 individuals suggests that a prevailing neurological hypothesis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) – theorizing that people with ASD have poorer neural connections in certain brain regions relative to those without ASD – may not be accurate.” The researchers said, “It is important to note that we do not conclude that amygdala [connectivity] is generally typical in autism. Instead, we conclude that the evidence for atypical [connectivity] of the amygdala in autism is weak at best, and unreliable.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

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— “Study Uncovers No Strong Evidence That Autism Is Linked With Poor Amygdala Connectivity, Psychiatric News, August 30, 2024