Healio (8/9, Demko) reported, “Diagnosing young children soon after symptom emergence expedites the start of interventions for autism spectrum disorder [ASD], and can help prepare children and their parents,” researchers concluded in a JAMA Network Insight published online Aug. 7 in JAMA Psychiatry. The piece added, “The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends screening young children at ages 18 months and 24 months for ASD, according to the paper.”

Related Links:

— “How clinicians can talk to worried parents about autism, “Savannah Demko, Healio, August 09, 2019

Medscape (8/9, Brooks, Subscription Publication) reported, “Eating dark chocolate may positively affect mood and relieve depressive symptoms, new research suggests.” Investigators “at University College London in the United Kngdom found that individuals who reported eating any dark chocolate in two 24-hour periods had 70% lower odds of reporting clinically relevant depressive symptoms compared to their counterparts who reported no chocolate consumption.” Still, “at least one expert said that at this point, the findings, although intriguing, are no more than food for thought and should not change dietary habits.” The study was published in Depression and Anxiety.

Related Links:

— “Sweet News: Dark Chocolate Tied to Lower Depression Risk, “Megan Brooks, Medscape (Subscription Publication), August 09, 2019

U.S. News & World Report (8/8, Hansen) reports a new survey reveals “one in seven Americans use products containing cannabidiol, the non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis.” The Gallup survey found that “14 percent of U.S. adults use CBD products, with younger people and West Coast residents more likely to use the cannabis-based goods.”

Related Links:

— “1 in 7 Adults Use CBD Products, Gallup Survey Finds, ” Claire Hansen, U.S. News & World Report, August 08, 2019

NPR (8/8, Greenfieldboyce) reports that while more American’s die from suicide with firearms than from homicide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “shies away from discussing the important link in this country between suicide and access to guns.” Documents “obtained by NPR” suggest the CDC “instead relies on vague language and messages about suicide that effectively downplay and obscure the risk posed by firearms.”

Related Links:

— “How The CDC’s Reluctance To Use The ‘F-Word’ — Firearms — Hinders Suicide Prevention, “Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR, August 08, 2019

Healio (8/8, Demko) reports, “The Medical Director Institute of the National Council for Behavioral Health convened an expert panel to examine the extent to which mental illness plays a role in mass violence and offer recommendations from” the perspective of behavioral health. Speaking with Healio, Joe Parks, MD, medical director of the National Council for Behavioral Health, said, “Mental illness is not a major cause of mass violence. Mass violence is caused by the social illnesses of hate and anger, not mental illness.” The panel’s “report [pdf] revealed that people with serious mental illness were responsible for less than 4% of all violence and less than one-third of mass violence,” but “in the wake of mass violence, policymakers and the public often point to mental illness as a key contributing factor.”

Healthcare Leaders Take Exception With Perceived Role Of Mental Illness In Mass Shootings MD Magazine (8/8, Kunzmann) reports that in wake of last weekend’s “successive but unrelated shootings in Dayton, OH, and El Paso, TX,” rhetoric focused “on the popular opinions of what drives the unrivaled rate of mass shooting events in the US: gun policies and regulation, public security measures, or mental health outreach.” This time, however, “healthcare thought leaders took exception with the discussion surrounding the perceived role of mental illness in such shootings.” To wit, “as Jessica Gold, MD, assistant professor of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, and Megan L. Ranney, MD, associate professor of Emergency Medicine at Brown University Alpert Medical School, wrote in a piece this week, the association between gun violence and mental illness has been subjected to the illusory truth effect.” In addition to “clinical evidence showing people with mental health conditions are actually 10 times more likely to become a violent crime victim than perpetrator, there’s reason to believe current assumptions about” people with mental illness “only worsen their state.”

Related Links:

— “Behavioral health experts recommend solutions to address mass violence, “Savannah Demko, Healio, August 08, 2019