Healio (10/28, Gramigna) reports, “Middle-aged adults with borderline personality disorder, or BPD, may be more likely to have a heart attack,” research indicated. The findings of the 1,295-participant study were published online in Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment.

Related Links:

— “Borderline personality disorder may increase risk for heart attack, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, October 28, 2019

Healio (10/28, Gramigna) reports, “Individuals with mental disorders have significantly higher mortality rates than the general population,” researchers concluded in “a Danish register-based cohort study” involving 7,369,926 people. The findings were published online Oct. 24 in The Lancet.

Related Links:

— “People with mental disorders die significantly earlier than general population, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, October 28, 2019

The Washington Post (10/25, Ebersole) reported, “Many first responders are struggling with PTSD wrought by both the everyday deaths and tragedies encountered on the job and a national epidemic of mass shootings.” Because surveys show “emergency workers are 10 times more likely to attempt suicide on average,” a “growing number of states, including Colorado, Texas, Vermont, Louisiana, Minnesota and Connecticut, have recently passed legislation to provide workers’ compensation for first responders suffering from PTSD.”

Related Links:

— “First responders struggle with PTSD caused by the emergencies, deaths, tragedies they face every day, ” Rene Ebersole, The Washington Post, October 25, 2019

The AP (10/27) reported that Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) “is helping lead an effort to create a three-digit suicide prevention hotline.” The senator “worked with three of his colleagues, Sens. Cory Gardner [R-CO], Tammy Baldwin [D-WI] and Jerry Moran [R-KS], to introduce a bill to designate 9-8-8 as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.”

Related Links:

— “US Sen. Reed wants to shorten the suicide prevention hotline, AP, October 27, 2019

Psychiatric News (10/25) reported, “Restricting the sale of flavored tobacco products may cut tobacco use among adolescents,” researchers concluded after comparing two Massachusetts municipalities, one that “restricted the sale of flavored tobacco products – those meant to taste like fruit, candy, honey, etc. – to tobacco retail stores such as smoking bars, vape shops, and tobacconists that only sell to adults aged 21 years and older,” and one that had no such policy in place at the time of the study. The findings were published online Oct. 24 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Limiting Flavored Tobacco Sales May Cut Use in Youth, Psychiatric News, October 25, 2019