Healio (7/26, Demko) reported, “Protection and restoration of tree canopy in urban green spaces appeared to promote community mental health,” researchers concluded after examining “whether total green space or specific types of green space were linked to better mental health in a sample of 46,786 city-dwelling participants aged 45 years and older from Sydney, Wollongong, and Newcastle, Australia.” Study “data were collected from 2006 through 2009 and follow-up was conducted from 2012 through 2015.” The findings were published online July 26 in JAMA Network Open. The author of an accompanying commentary observed, “Given this potential consequence, the relevance of green space offering peace and quiet for its mental health benefits seems an important topic for further investigation.”

Related Links:

— “Urban green spaces appear to offer mental health benefits, “Savannah Demko, Healio, July 26, 2019

On its “Weekend Edition Saturday” program, NPR (7/27, Axelrod, Balaban, Simon) delved into the topic of suicides among the elderly. NPR wrote, “Of the more than 47,000 suicides that took place in 2017, those 65 and up accounted for more than 8,500 of them, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Men aged “65 and older face the highest risk of suicide, while adults 85 and older, regardless of gender, are the second most likely age group to die from suicide.” Mental health experts interviewed by NPR expressed concern about the trend. Studies have shown that “one out of four senior citizens that attempt suicide dies, compared to one out of 200 attempts for young adults.” Bereavement, loneliness, pain, and age-related diseases may all play a role in elders’ susceptibility to suicide.

Related Links:

— “Isolated And Struggling, Many Seniors Are Turning To Suicide, “Josh Axelrod, Samantha Balaban, Scott Simon, NPR, July 27, 2019

STAT (7/26, Joseph) reported a study of “more than 300,000 women who gave birth between 2008 and 2016” found nearly 2% “showed signs of ‘persistent’ opioid use” after childbirth. However, “both the percentage of women who filled their prescriptions and the rate of persistent opioid use declined” over the study period. HealthDay (7/26, Preidt) reported the study “found 1% to 2% of those women were still filling opioid prescriptions a year later,” and that “those most likely to be doing so were women who were prescribed opioids before giving birth, and those who got the largest initial doses.” MedPage Today (7/26, D’Ambrosio) reported the research showed “during the study period, opioid prescription fills decreased from 26.9% to 23.8% among women who gave birth vaginally and from 75.5% to 72.6% for women that had a C-section.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Study: 2% of women have ‘persistent’ opioid use after childbirth, “Lauren Joseph, STAT, July 26, 2019

Newsweek (7/24, Gander) reports researchers found that older people “with a high BMI and a big waistline…could be more likely to have a sign of brain aging linked to dementia.” The findings were published in Neurology. Medscape (7/24, Anderson, Subscription Publication) reports the researchers found that “greater body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) are associated with cortical thinning in the brain, especially in early old age.”

Related Links:

— “Big waist and high BMI associated with brain thinning linked to dementia, “Kashmira Gander, Newsweek, July 24, 2019

The Washington Post (7/24, Achenbach, Koh, Bennett, Mara) reports, “Southwest Virginia is among the regions in the United States hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, which has roots in prescription” analgesics. Newly-released “Drug Enforcement Administration data obtained and analyzed by The Washington Post” demonstrate “the swollen pipeline of prescription opioids from factories to pharmacies from 2006 to 2012.” The opioid epidemic “has been particularly brutal…in central Appalachia, which has seen the coal industry contract and now has some of the highest poverty and disability rates in the nation.” As to “how and why Appalachia became the epicenter of the epidemic,” this “is partly due to the real need for painkillers among workers hurt in coal mines and in other types of physically demanding jobs,” and also to the fact that opioid analgesics “were more addictive than people realized.”

Related Links:

— “Flooded with opioids, Appalachia is still trying to recover, “Joel Achenbach, Joyce Koh, Dalton Bennett, The Washington Post, July 24, 2019