WGBH-FM Boston (12/15, McKim) reports on “the responsibilities and challenges of public schools to respond to the increasing mental health needs of students,” particularly since “suicide is the second-leading cause of death for teenagers.” Currently, “most health specialists agree that school personnel, in contact with students for a large part of the day, can be a key resource in providing help” to seriously troubled adolescents. But, while “the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention recommends that states require that all public school personnel receive at least two hours of suicide awareness and prevention training each year,” the “foundation says only 13 states require such annual training.”

Related Links:

— “Massachusetts Case Probes The Role Schools Play In Teen Suicide Prevention, “Jenifer Mckim, NPR, December 15, 2019

Psychiatric News (12/13) reported, “It takes an average of seven years for people who have some, but not all, symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (subthreshold OCD) to develop full-blown OCD,” researchers concluded. The study also revealed that “certain characteristics, such as male sex, the presence of other psychiatric conditions, and romantic status, may be associated with a faster transition from subthreshold OCD to OCD.” The findings of the 954-patient study were published online Dec. 10 in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Male Sex, Comorbid Psychiatric Conditions, Romantic Status Linked to Faster Progression to OCD, Psychiatric News, December 13, 2019

Healio (12/13, Gramigna) reported, “An updated version of an established model for major depressive disorder [MDD] offers a ‘useful foundation’ toward a comprehensive developmental model of prescription opioid use disorder,” researchers concluded after drawing “data from the 2012 to 2013 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III and divided risk factors into four developmental tiers – childhood/early adolescence, late adolescence, adulthood and past-year,” then using “hierarchical logistic regression models to assess each risk factor’s independent contribution and built separate models to predict 12-month nonmedical prescription opioid use and risk for prescription opioid use disorder among individuals with 12-month nonmedical use.” The findings were published online Dec. 3 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Updated depressive model targets patients with prescription opioid use disorder, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 13, 2019

HealthDay (12/13, Reinberg) reported, “People who wind up in emergency” departments (EDs) “because they tried to kill themselves or contemplated it had a much higher risk of suicide within the year of the visit,” researchers concluded in a study that included “more than 85,000 people who had attempted suicide; over 67,000 who had thoughts of suicide; and a control group of nearly 500,000 people who went to an” ED “but had no suicide-related thoughts or problems.” The study revealed that “those who attempted suicide were 57 times more likely to kill themselves in the following year compared to the general public,” while “people with suicidal thoughts seen in the” ED “were 31 times more likely to try suicide in the ensuing year.” The findings were published online Dec. 13 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “ER Visits for Attempted Suicide Greatly Raise Odds for Future Tragedy, ” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, December 13, 2019

Healio (12/12, Gramigna) reports, “Individuals with depression were more than twice as likely to use cannabis than those without depression,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from the annual cross-sectional National Survey on Drug Use and Health to assess linear time trends of the prevalence of any, daily and nondaily past 30-day use and perceived great risk associated with regular cannabis use,” focusing on data “for 728,691 individuals aged 12 years or older.” The findings were published online Dec. 4 in the journal Addiction.

Related Links:

— “People with depression twice as likely to use cannabis, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 12, 2019