CNN International (11/17, Rogers) reported climate change “is a potentially lethal threat” for “people with mental health problems such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or anxiety.” In June 2021, “during a record-breaking heat wave in British Columbia…8% of people who died from the extreme heat had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, according to a March study. That made the disorder a more dangerous risk factor than all other conditions the authors studied, including kidney disease and coronary artery disease.” American Psychiatric Association Representative to the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health Robert Feder, MD, said, “Until climate change gets under control, things are only going to get worse unfortunately. … As the temperature keeps increasing, these effects are going to be magnified. There’s going to be more storms, more fires, and people are going to be more worried about what could happen because a lot more things are happening.”

Related Links:

— “As Earth’s temperature rises, so do deaths among people with mental health problems,”Kristen Rogers, CNN, November 17, 2023

The New York Times (11/16, Caron) reports, “Seniors are one of the fastest-growing populations of cannabis users in the United States.” Research indicates some “are turning to the drug for the first time to help them sleep better, dampen pain or treat anxiety – especially when prescription drugs, which often come with unwanted side effects, don’t work as intended.” In 2007, just 0.4 percent of US adults over 65 “reported using cannabis in the past year, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That number rose to almost 3 percent by 2016. As of 2022, it was at more than 8 percent.”

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

HealthDay (11/16, Thompson) reports, “New mothers living in states with generous mandated paid family and medical leave are less likely to experience postpartum depression, a…study indicates.” In the study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers found “women living in the eight states with the most generous paid family leave had a 9% greater chance of breastfeeding at six months postpartum, compared to the 26 states with little to no paid leave.”

Related Links:

— “Paid Family Leave May Lower Odds for Postpartum Depression,”Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, November 16, 2023

Psychiatric News (11/16) reports “anxiety and depression among pregnant mothers” were “associated with a greater risk of internalizing and externalizing symptoms among their children even after controlling for the child’s genetic risk for mental” illnesses, “according to a study.” The researchers “found that prenatal maternal depression and anxiety was associated with the child’s internalizing, externalizing, and total emotional symptoms across all ages tested.” The findings were published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Prenatal Anxiety, Depression Associated With MH Symptoms in Children, Independent of Genetic Risk, Psychiatric News, November 16, 2023

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