CNN (8/7, Willingham) reports that “Dr. Pam Ramsden, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Bradford in the UK, has studied the psychological effects of consuming negative news from social media.” She “says this vicarious trauma affects a portion of the viewing public and though it is not a specific diagnosis, she has seen patterns similar to those that plague first responders.” Ramsden said, “Some individuals are left with post-traumatic stress and must be professionally treated, others are affected a short time with acute stress disorder.” Ali Dixon, a counselor who practices at the Anxiety & Stress Management Institute in Atlanta, “says she has had several clients express increased anxiety and concern because of recent news events” and “says the best way to cope with this anxiety is to pull away.”

Related Links:

— “When bad news gets to be too much, “AJ Willingham, CNN, August 07, 2019

Healio (8/7, Demko) reports, “Lower cardiorespiratory fitness levels were linked to a higher risk for depression and anxiety disorders,” researchers concluded. The findings of the four-study “systematic review and meta-analysis” were published online ahead of print in the October issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Lower cardiorespiratory fitness linked to greater risk for depression, anxiety, “Savannah Demko, Healio, August 07, 2019

FierceHealthcare (8/7, Finnegan) reports leaders from several physician and public health groups, including the American Psychiatric Association, penned a letter in the Annals of Internal Medicine calling “for action to prevent gun-related injuries and deaths.” Co-author Patrice Harris, M.D. and others wrote, “We, the leadership of 6 of the nation’s largest physician professional societies, whose memberships include 731,000 U.S. physicians, reiterate our commitment to finding solutions and call for policies to reduce firearm injuries and deaths.” The letters urges several policies, including extreme risk protection order laws, or “red alert laws,” and “supporting the ability of physicians to advise their patients on issues that affect their health, including counseling at-risk patients about mitigating the risks associated with firearms in the home and firearm safety.”

Related Links:

— “With one voice, 7 leading medical organizations call for action to prevent gun injuries and deaths, “Joanne Finnegan, FierceHealthcare, August 07, 2019

The AP (8/6, Stobbe) reports, “Prescriptions of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone are soaring, and experts say that could be a reason overdose deaths have stopped rising for the first time in nearly three decades.” CDC officials reported Tuesday that “the number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed by U.S. retail pharmacies doubled from 2017 to last year, rising from 271,000 to 557,000.” Meanwhile, “about 68,000 people died of overdoses last year, according to preliminary government statistics reported last month, a drop from the more than 70,000 in 2017.” CDC researchers also “noted there were fewer than 1,300 naloxone prescriptions dispensed in 2012, meaning the number grew more than 430-fold in six years.” Health officials “said pharmacies should be giving out even more.” The findings were published online in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
STAT (8/6, Joseph) reports that “while the number of naloxone prescriptions doubled from 2017 to 2018, there was still only one dispensed for every 69 high-dose opioid prescriptions.” Dr. Anne Schuchat, the Principal Deputy Director of the CDC, said: “We may never get to 1-to-1…but we think that ratio of 1-to-70 is too low.” Meanwhile, the CDC report “also uncovered drastic geographic disparities, with some counties dispensing the medication at 25 times the rate of other counties.” Specifically, “dispensing rates were often lowest in rural counties, a finding that Schuchat called ‘disappointing.’”

Related Links:

— “Boom in overdose-reversing drug is tied to fewer drug deaths, “Mike Stobbe, AP, August 06, 2019

NPR (8/6, Chatterjee) reports on its “All Things Considered” program and in its “Shots” blog research indicates mass shooting “incidents usually occur in clusters and tend to be contagious” and that “intensive media coverage seems to drive the contagion.” In a 2015 study published in PLOS One, “researchers at Arizona State University analyzed data on cases of mass violence.” Lead researcher Sherry Towers said, “What we found was that for the mass killings – so these are high profile mass killings where there’s at least four people killed – there was significant evidence of contagion.” Investigators “also found that what distinguished shootings that were contagious from those that weren’t was the amount of media coverage they received.” In addition, they “found that there is a window when a shooting is most likely to lead to more incidents – about two weeks.”

Related Links:

— “Mass Shootings Can Be Contagious, Research Shows, “Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, August 06, 2019