According to HealthDay (2/18, Preidt), investigators “analyzed nearly 4,000 firearm suicides and found that long guns, not handguns, are more often the method of choice for youths and people in rural areas.” Specifically, the “analysis of Maryland data for 2003 to 2018 revealed that about 45% of children and teens used long guns such as rifles and shotguns to kill themselves, compared to 20% of seniors.” The study’s lead author said, “Many of the safety protections that we have in place around the country typically don’t apply to long guns, and the data suggest that our strategy needs to be modified.” The findings were published online Feb. 3 in the journal Injury Epidemiology.

Related Links:

— “Shotguns Often Play Tragic Role in Rural Teens’ Suicides: Study, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 18, 2020

Healio (2/18, Gramigna) reports, “Early improvements of individual symptoms might contribute to later treatment response among patients with Alzheimer’s disease receiving antipsychotics for neuropsychiatric symptoms,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness-Alzheimer’s Disease,” which “included data from 421 patients with DSM-IV Alzheimer’s Disease receiving antipsychotics for neuropsychiatric symptoms.” The findings of the “re-analysis study” were published online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Early individual symptom response to antipsychotics impacts later response in patients with Alzheimer’s
, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 18, 2020

Healio (2/17, Gramigna) reported, “Memory suppression is vital to positive adaptation following traumatic experiences,” investigators concluded in a “brain imaging study conducted in survivors of a terrorist attack.” For the study, researchers “implemented neutral and inoffensive intrusive memories in a lab setting among a group of 102 individuals exposed to the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, as well as 73 nonexposed individuals who were not in Paris during the attacks.” Of these people, “a total of 55 exposed individuals had been diagnosed with PTSD.” The study revealed that “upon reexperiencing intrusive memories, nonexposed individuals and exposed individuals without PTSD could adaptively suppress memory activity; however, exposed individuals with PTSD could not.” The findings were published online Feb. 14 in the journal Science.

Related Links:

— “PTSD brain mechanisms revealed using data from survivors of 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 17, 2020

HealthDay (2/17, Mozes) reports, “More than a quarter of all opioid overdoses in the United States involve teenagers, and a full fifth of those cases were likely suicide attempts,” researchers concluded after performing “an in-depth analysis of nearly 754,000 American opioid poisoning cases that occurred between 2005 and 2018,” all of which “had been reported to the U.S. National Poison Data System.” Nearly “208,000 of those cases involved children 18 years old or younger.”

MedPage Today (2/17, Boyles) reports that one “particularly troubling finding in the adolescent data was the high percentage of teens who were using opioids to attempt suicide.” The findings are scheduled for presentation this week at a meeting of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Related Links:

— “1 in 4 Opioid ODs Involves Kids and Teens, “Alan Mozes, HealthDay, February 17, 2020

HealthDay (2/14, Preidt) reported, “U.S. soldiers who suffer a moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) are more likely to suffer” from a mental illness “than those with other serious injuries,” researchers concluded after analyzing “the records of nearly 5,000 U.S. military members – mostly from the Army or Marines – who were severely injured during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2011.” The study revealed that “71% of the severely injured soldiers in the study were later diagnosed with at least one of five mental [illnesses]: post-traumatic stress disorder…anxiety and mood disorders, adjustment reactions, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and cognitive disorders.” Investigators also found that “the rate of mental [illnesses] among seriously injured soldiers is much higher than previously reported.” The findings were published online Dec. 31 in the journal Military Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Traumatic Brain Injuries Raise Risk of Psychiatric Ills in Soldiers, ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 14, 2020