In the New York Times (12/30) “Personal Health” column, Jane E. Brody writes that hearing loss “is the largest modifiable risk factor for developing dementia, exceeding that of smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise and social isolation.” Brody writes that “new findings on cognitive losses linked to subclinical hearing loss, gleaned from among 6,451 people age 50 or older, suggest that any degree of hearing loss can take a toll.”

Related Links:

— “For Better Brain Health, Preserve Your Hearing, “Jane E. Brody, The New York Times, December 30, 2019

Healio (12/27, Gramigna) reported, “Grandparents who are active in the lives of their grandchildren may have a decreased risk for loneliness and social isolation,” researchers concluded after obtaining and analyzing “cross-sectional survey data from a population-based sample of 3,849 community-dwelling adults in Germany aged 40 years or older.” The findings were published online in BMJ Open.

Related Links:

— “Grandparents who care for grandchildren less likely to feel isolated, lonely, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 27, 2019

The San Francisco Chronicle (12/28, Fagone, Cassidey) reported, “The suicide rate among California prisoners has climbed five years in a row and rose in 2019 to the highest level in at least three decades…according to experts, advocates for prisoners and the state’s top corrections official.” As of Tuesday, 36 people this year had died by suicide inside the state’s prisons, amounting to “a rate of 28.7 suicides per 100,000 prisoners – an increase over last year’s rate of 26.3.” Public officials, judges, and experts “say California’s deaths are the result of a system that for decades has failed to provide proper help to the state’s mentally ill prisoners, a population estimated at more than 30,000.”

Related Links:

— “Exclusive: Suicides rise again in California prisons — 36 this year, despite scrutiny, “Jason Fagone and Megan Cassidy, The San Francisco Chronicle, December 30, 2019

Psychiatric News (12/27) reported, “Though the total number of child psychiatrists in the United States increased between 2007 and 2016, a shortage remains in large swaths of the country, particularly in lower-income areas,” researchers concluded after examining “data from the Area Health Resource Files of the Department of Health and Human Services to compare the numbers of child psychiatrists by county between 2007 and 2016.” The findings were published online in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Many U.S. Counties Have No Child Psychiatrists, Study Finds, “Joe Gramigna, Psychiatric News , December 27, 2019

Cancer Network (12/26, Slater) reports a study “indicated that about a third of patients newly diagnosed with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have moderate to severe symptoms of depression.” The studypublished in Lung Cancer showed among 186 patients, “8.1% with newly diagnosed NSCLC scored at the severe depressive symptom level. Of those patients, 100% reported depressed mood and 80% reported anhedonia more days than not.” Meanwhile, “more than 70% of patients with newly diagnosed NSCLC and severe depressive symptoms also had moderate to severe/severe generalized anxiety disorder (GAD),” while only 11.5 percent of patients with moderate depression had GAD.

Related Links:

— “Moderate to Severe Depression Affects One-Third of Patients with NSCLC, “Hannah Slater, Cancer Network, December 26, 2019