Healio (1/25, Gramigna) reports, “Internet searches related to suicide decreased during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic,” investigators concluded after using “the Google Trends application programming interface to monitor weekly Google search rates for the term ‘suicide’ between January 2010 and July 5, 2020,” then monitoring “the top 20 unique queries related to suicide after excluding unrelated terms.” Finally, researchers “compared search rate changes before and after the U.S. declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency during the second week of March 2020.” The findings of the “cross-sectional study” were published online Jan. 21 in a research letter in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Suicide-related Google searches decreased significantly since onset of COVID-19 pandemic “Joe Gramigna, Healio, January 25, 2021

The Washington Post (1/25, Searing) reports a record 81,230 people died from drug overdoses in the US “in the 12 months ending last May,” according to a CDC report. Drug overdose deaths increased 18% “from the previous year, with increases recorded in 46 states (by more than 20 percent in 25 of those states) and just four states recording a decrease.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Healio (1/21, Schaffer) reports, “Low thyroid-stimulating hormone [TSH] levels are positively associated with incident depression, particularly among women, and even among euthyroid adults,” investigators concluded after analyzing “baseline TSH and free thyroxine levels from 11,986 participants in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health.” The findings were published online Jan. 1 in the journal Clinical Endocrinology.

Related Links:

— “Low TSH levels associated with incident depression among women “Regina Schaffer, Healio, January 21, 2021

Psychiatric News (1/21) reports, “There was a fivefold increase in methamphetamine overdose deaths from 2011 to 2018 among U.S. adults aged 25 to 54, with American Indians and Alaska Natives experiencing the highest death rates,” investigators concluded after gathering “deidentified public health surveillance data on methamphetamine-related deaths from 2011 to 2018 from the National Vital Statistics System,” then limiting “their analysis to individuals between 25 and 54 years old, as national data show that four-fifths of people who use methamphetamines are within this age group.” The findings were published online Jan. 20 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Study Points to Methamphetamine Crisis Among American Indians, Alaska Natives, Psychiatric News, January 21, 2021

CNN (1/20, LaMotte) reports, “Heavy use of marijuana by teens and young adults with mood disorders – such as depression and bipolar disorder – is linked to an increased risk of self-harm, suicide attempts and death,” investigators concluded in a study that used “Ohio Medicare data to identify both cannabis use disorder and self-harm attempts and outcomes in youth between the ages of 10 and 24 years old.” The findings were published online Jan. 19 in JAMA Pediatrics.

HealthDay (1/20, Preidt) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— “Marijuana abuse by youth with mood disorders linked to suicide attempts, self-harm and death, study finds “Sandee LaMotte, CNN, January 20, 2021