HealthDay (8/28, Reinberg) reports, “Suicide has become an urgent issue among American military veterans, with rates increasing by more than 10 times in nearly two decades,” researchers concluded after examining data on “more than 8,200 suicides among veterans, comparing them with more than 562,000 U.S. adults in the general population.” The study also revealed that “the suicide rate for those with a” traumatic brain injury (TBI) “was 56% higher than among veterans who didn’t suffer a TBI.” The findings were published online Aug. 28 in the journal Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Suicides Among U.S. Veterans Jumped 10-Fold in Decades After 9/11,”Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, August 28, 2023

Psychiatric News (8/28) reports, “Individuals who take multiple antipsychotics to manage schizophrenia symptoms have three times the risk of developing hypertension relative to those taking one antipsychotic,” researchers concluded in a study that included “1,663, 1,268, and 1,668 adults with schizophrenia…assessed for incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, respectively.” The study revealed that “the risk of hypertension was greatest when the patients were taking multiple first-generation antipsychotics.” The findings were published online Aug. 25 in the Schizophrenia Bulletin.

Related Links:

— “Antipsychotic Polypharmacy Increases Risk of Hypertension, Study Suggests, Psychiatric News, August 28, 2023

MedPage Today (8/28, Robertson) reports, “For mothers with opioid use disorder (OUD), the use of medication for their addiction such as buprenorphine or methadone during the prenatal period was associated with improved outcomes in infants,” investigators concluded in findings published online in JAMA Pediatrics. Utilizing “data from a multistate Medicaid database on over 10,000 mother-infant dyads, prenatal use of medications for OUD was found to be associated with 20% higher odds of infants receiving six well-child visits…and 20% lower odds of readmissions” during “the first year of life,” the study found.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (8/25, Solomon) reported, “Extreme heat exposure can disproportionately undermine cognitive health in later life for socially vulnerable populations,” researchers concluded after merging “data from seven waves of the Health and Retirement Study (2006 to 2018) with historical temperature data to assess the role of extreme heat exposure on trajectories of cognitive function among U.S. adults aged 52 years and older.” The findings were published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Related Links:

— “Extreme Heat Exposure Tied to Faster Cognitive Decline in Vulnerable Populations,”Lori Solomon, HealthDay, August 25, 2023

KFF Health News (8/25, Szabo) reported on the problem of social media’s “role in escalating gun violence.” The article interviewed a number of experts who “note that social media can have a particularly pernicious effect in communities with high rates of gun violence.” Now, “at a time when virtually every teen has a cellphone, many have access to guns, and many are coping with mental and emotional health crises, some say it’s not surprising that violence features so heavily in children’s social media feeds.” For that reason, police departments “search social media after the fact to gather evidence against those involved in violence,” and certain programs “monitor influential social media accounts in their communities to de-escalate conflicts.”

Related Links:

— “‘All We Want Is Revenge’: How Social Media Fuels Gun Violence Among Teens,”Liz Szabo, KFF Health News , August 25, 2023