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

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