The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (10/24) contends that “for the first time, an autism rights movement appears to have found a collective voice of its own – poets, professors, comedians, computer geeks and YouTubers, some using text-to-voice synthesizers.” Now, “a marginalized minority unexpectedly has launched a civil rights movement that has found allies well beyond the autism community.” The collective has given “themselves a name: the neurodiversity movement,” whose “first order of business was to abolish” the labels of “normal” and “abnormal” and replace them with “neurotypical” and “neurodivergent.”

Related Links:

— “Abolishing ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’: How the long-marginalized autism community is becoming a bellwether of social change, “John Schmid, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 24, 2019

The AP (10/25, Stobbe) reports fentanyl “is driving drug overdose deaths in the U.S. overall, but in nearly half of the country,” methamphetamine “is the bigger killer,” according to a new CDC report. The report “is the agency’s first geographic breakdown of deaths by drug,” which is “based on 2017 figures when there were more than 70,000 overdose deaths in the U.S., two-thirds of them involving opioids.” Methamphetamine “was No. 4 nationwide, cited in 13% of overdose deaths,” but “in the four western regions, it was No. 1, at 21% to 38%.”

Related Links:

— “Meth is most common drug in overdose deaths in chunk of US, “Mike Stobbe, AP, October 25, 2019

TIME (10/24, Oaklander) reports, “Suicide is one of the most urgent health problems facing America today,” now representing “the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., claiming 47,000 lives per year.” Not only are US “suicide rates…the highest they’ve been since World War II,” they are also “rising in nearly every state and across age groups and ethnicities.” While it remains unclear as to “what’s driving the rise…experts speculate that many factors may be contributing, including high rates of drug abuse, stress and social isolation.” But, “for all the disparate reasons people die by suicide…research suggests that 83% visit some kind of doctor in the year before their death.” For that reason, “health care facilities are logical places to prevent suicide.” The article details various efforts on the part of “hospitals and behavioral-health centers” to “include research-backed interventions that have been studied for years but haven’t, until now, been widely used.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide Is Preventable. Hospitals and Doctors Are Finally Catching Up, “MANDY OAKLANDER, TIMES, October 24, 2019

The CBS News (10/23, De Pinto, Backus) website reports CBS News has conducted a poll of 1,292 US adults, the findings of which revealed that “two in three Americans think mental illness is a very serious public health problem, and few say there are adequate services and support in the U.S. for people living with it.” The poll also found that “a majority say they personally know someone who has been diagnosed with a mental health disorder.”

Related Links:

— “Most Americans think there is stigma associated with mental illness — CBS News Poll, “Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus, CBS News, October 23, 2019

HealthDay (10/23, Thompson) reports, “Tasty flavors entice young people to try e-cigarettes, getting them hooked on what can become a lifetime habit,” researchers concluded after assessing “data collected in 2013-2014 to see whether people are more likely to first try a flavored e-cigarette or other tobacco product,” then examining “data gathered a year later to see if those who first tried a flavored product were still using tobacco.” The study revealed the “seven out of 10 kids who were new users of tobacco first tried a flavored product, as well as more than half of young adults.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Flavors Draw Young People to Lifetime Habit of Vaping, Study Shows, “Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, October 23, 2019