The New York Times (5/2, Philipps) reports that a “120-millimeter heavy mortar…unleashes enough explosive force to hurl a 31-pound bomb four miles,” and “the heads of the soldiers who fire it are just inches from the blast.” Yet, “the military says that those blasts are not powerful enough to cause brain injuries.” Meanwhile, “soldiers say that the Army is not seeing the evidence sitting in its own hospital waiting rooms.” In more than two dozen interviews, the Times found that “soldiers who served at different bases and in different eras said that over the course of firing thousands of mortar rounds in training, they developed symptoms that match those of traumatic brain injury, including headaches, insomnia, confusion, frayed memory, bad balance, racing hearts, paranoia, depression and random eruptions of rage or tears.” However, nothing was reported.

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

CNN (5/1, Holcombe ) reports, “Does it ever feel as if your anger courses through your veins? Well, that isn’t too far off, according to new research.” Angry feelings “adversely affect blood vessel health, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association.” In the study, “researchers divided 280 participants and gave them a task that made them recall feelings of anger, sadness, anxiety or neutrality for eight minutes. Before and several times after the task, the researchers took measures of the individuals’ vascular health.”
NBC News (5/1, Mantel ) reports, “The researchers found blood vessels’ ability to dilate was significantly reduced among people in the angry group compared with those in the control group. Blood vessel dilation wasn’t affected in the sadness and anxiety groups.” Impairment of blood vessel dilation “is an early marker for atherosclerosis, which is the buildup of fats and cholesterol, called plaque, on artery walls that make the arteries stiff. Atherosclerosis can lead to coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke and kidney disorders.”

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— “Anger can harm your blood vessel function, study shows,”Madeline Holcombe , CNN, May 1, 2024

Psychiatric News (5/1) reports, “Forty-three percent of US adults said that they feel more anxious now than they did last year, compared with 37% in 2023 and 32% in 2022, according to APA’s 2024 annual mental health poll” based on responses from 2,204 adults surveyed online. The poll found “70% of respondents said they were somewhat or very concerned about current events, especially the economy (77%), the upcoming US election (73%), gun violence (69%), hate speech/crimes (65%), and climate change (56%).”

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— “Many U.S. Adults Anxious Over Election, Other Current Events, APA Poll Finds, Psychiatric News, May 1, 2024

Psychiatric News (4/30) reports, “While clozapine increases an individual’s risk of agranulocytosis (a drop in a type of white blood cell that can be life threatening) more than other antipsychotics, the risk of a serious adverse event is minimal and drops steeply after the first year of use, according to” researchers who “tracked nearly 62,000 people in Finland for up to 22 years” and “also found that the fatality rate among individuals who develop agranulocytosis is very low.” The results were published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Risks of Clozapine Decline Sharply After Six Months, May Warrant Reduced Monitoring, Psychiatric News, April 30, 2024

CNN (4/30, Rogers ) reports that researchers have “quantified the risk of depression during the transition” to menopause, “known as perimenopause – showing that women in this stage are about 40% more likely to experience the mental health condition than premenopausal women.” The investigators came to this conclusion after analyzing data from “seven studies totaling 9,141 women.” The findings were published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Perimenopause may raise risk of one mental health condition by 40%, study finds,”Kristen Rogers, CNN, April 30, 2024