Healio (3/3, Downey) reports researchers found in a meta-analysis that “children and adolescents who bully their peers have a higher risk for drug, alcohol and tobacco use later in life.” The review study was published in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Children And Adolescents Who Bully Peers Have Higher Risk For Substance Use Later In Life, Review Study Indicates “Ken Downey Jr., Healio, March 3, 2021

Healio (3/2, Michael) reports, “Increased incarceration rates in counties across the U.S. were linked to increased risk for mortality from infectious diseases, chronic lower respiratory disease, substance abuse, suicide and multiple other causes,” researchers concluded after conducting “a retrospective, longitudinal study using data on U.S. county-level incarceration from 1987 to 2017 from the Vera Institute of Justice, and data on cause-specific mortality in people aged younger than 75 years from 1988 to 2018 collected from the U.S. National Vital Statistics System.” The findings were published online Feb. 23 in The Lancet Public Health.

Related Links:

— “Incarceration rates linked to elevated risk for premature death “Erin Michael, Healio, March 2, 2021

MedPage Today (3/2, Fiore) reports that for much of 2020, “teens’ mental health services accounted for a much greater proportion of all their medical claims than in the past,” according to a paper (PDF) from FAIR Health. MedPage Today adds, “Mental health claims essentially doubled as a percentage of all medical claims for individuals age 13-18 in March (+97%) and April (+103.5%) of 2020 compared with the same periods a year earlier,” according to the paper.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Healio (3/2, Gramigna) reports, “A significant proportion of youths may experience post-traumatic stress [PTS] symptoms after a natural disaster,” investigators concluded in a study that sought to assess “PTS symptom trajectories among 1,707 youth, for whom the mean age was 9.61 years and of whom 46% self-identified as white non-Hispanic, after four major U.S. hurricanes, as well as to assess factors linked to those trajectories.” The findings were published online Feb. 15 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Many youths experience post-traumatic stress after natural disasters, study finds “Joe Gramigna, Healio, March 2, 2021

Psychiatric News (3/2) reports, “Suicide rates among men aged 65 years and older in the United States have been steadily rising since 2007,” researchers concluded in a study that analyzed “suicide data from 1999 to 2018 reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) database.” The study also “revealed that men who are White, aged 85 years or older, and living in rural areas may be at greatest risk.” The findings were published online Feb. 27 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Study Highlights Rising Number of Older U.S. Men Dying by Suicide, Psychiatric News, March 2, 2021