The New York Times (6/3, Bakalar) reports, “Women who take benzodiazepines…before becoming pregnant may be at increased risk for ectopic pregnancy,” researchers concluded after using “an insurance database of 1,691,366 pregnancies to track prescriptions for benzodiazepines in the 90 days before conception.” The study revealed that such “women were 47 percent more likely to have a tubal pregnancy than those who did not.” The findings were published online June 3 in the journal Human Reproduction.

Also providing similar coverage are MedPage Today (6/3, D’Ambrosio), MD Magazine (6/3, Rosenfeld) and HealthDay (6/3, Gordon).

Related Links:

— “Benzodiazepines Tied to Higher Risk of Ectopic Pregnancy, “Nicholas Bakalar, The New York Times , June 3, 2020

The New York Times (6/3, Carey) reports that first-time gun ownership “raises the purchasers’ risk of deliberately shooting themselves by ninefold on average, with the danger most acute in the weeks after purchase,” researchers concluded in “the largest analysis to date tracking individual, first-time gun owners and suicide for more than a decade.” What’s more, “the risk remains elevated for years,” investigators found after tracking “nearly 700,000 first-time handgun buyers, year by year, and” then comparing “them with similar non-owners, breaking out risk by gender.”

HealthDay (6/3, Norton) reports the study concluded that “male handgun owners had an eight times higher risk, versus other men; the risk soared 35-fold among female gun owners, compared with other women.” The latter “partly reflects the fact that women generally have a low rate of suicide by gun, said lead researcher David Studdert,” LLB, ScD. Studdert also “said, men accounted for the large majority of firearm suicides during the study period, at 83%.” The findings were published in the June 4 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Related Links:

— “First-Time Gun Owners at Risk for Suicide, Major Study Confirms, “Benedict Carey, The New York Times, June 3, 2020

Psychiatric News (6/3) reports, “Rates of seclusion and restraint at American hospitals, including psychiatric hospitals, fell between 2013 and 2017, at least among those with the highest rates,” research indicated. What’s more, “for-profit hospitals appear to use seclusion and restraint much less than nonprofit and government-owned facilities,” investigators found after examining “rates of seclusion and restraint at 1,642 acute care and psychiatric facilities using the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Hospital Compare website,” then comparing “three types of hospitals – for-profit, nonprofit, and government-owned.” The findings were published online June 3 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Use of Seclusion, Restraint in Hospitals Drops, But Better Data Needed to Get Complete Picture, Psychiatric News, June 3, 2020

Medscape (6/2, Harrison, Subscription Publication) reports, “People with diabetic retinopathy experience depression at higher rates than the general population, but the rate decreases at the most severe stage of the disease,” investigators concluded after analyzing “a database of 95,575 people 18 years and older with eye exams on record at the Carolina Data Warehouse, a repository of all patients seen in the University of North Carolina system.” The findings were presented in a virtual presentation at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 2020 Annual Meeting.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

MD Magazine (6/2, Walter) reports, “Cannabis use is associated with poorer mental health outcomes, with evidence showing the use of higher-potency cannabis increasing these risks,” researchers concluded after examining “whether high-potency cannabis compared to low-potency cannabis increases the risk of problems resulting from cannabis use, common mental disorders, and psychotic experiences after controlling for early-life mental health symptoms and frequency of use.” The findings of the 1,087-individual study revealed that “use of high-potency cannabis was linked to a significant increase in the frequency of cannabis use,” as well as “cannabis problems…and increased likelihood of anxiety disorder.” What’s more, those “who use high-potency cannabis had a slight increase in likelihood of psychotic experiences…tobacco dependence,” and use of other illicit drugs. The findings were published online May 27 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “High-Potency Cannabis Linked to Poor Mental Health, “Kenny Walter, MD Magazine, June 2, 2020