USA Today (10/10, May, Rossman) reports, “World Mental Health Day, Oct. 10, is a day to combat the stigma that mental health struggles aren’t real.”

Healio (10/10) reports that World Mental Health Day was observed on Oct. 10. In 2015, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, “an estimated 43.4 million adults aged 18 or older in the US experienced any mental illness within the past year.” What’s more, “serious mental illness occurred among an estimated 9.8 million adults in the US in 2015, representing 4% of all US adults.”

Related Links:

— “World Mental Health Day: People who got real about mental health,” Ashley May and Sean Rossman, USA Today, October 10, 2017.

Reuters (10/6, Crist) reports that children in elementary school, particularly those between ages eight and 10 “with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial anomalies may struggle more than older kids with anger, anxiety, depression and stress,” researchers found after surveying “99 patients at the UCLA Craniofacial Clinic ranging in age from 8 to 17 years.” The findings were published online Oct. 1 in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Related Links:

— “Anxiety, depression greatest in younger kids with facial birth defects,” Carolyn Crist, Reuters, October 6, 2017.

Reuters (10/6, Rapaport) reported, “Most law enforcement agencies and many gun retailers may be willing to temporarily store firearms to help prevent suicide,” researchers concluded after surveying “448 law enforcement agencies and 95 gun retailers in eight states.” The findings were published online Sept. 21 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Related Links:

— “Some police and retailers may store guns to help prevent suicide,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, October 6, 2017.

Medscape (10/9, Anderson) reports, “Midday bright white light therapy may be effective for patients with bipolar depression,” researchers concluded after randomizing 46 patients “to a group that received broad- spectrum bright white fluorescent light (7000 lux) or to one that received inactive dim red light (50 lux).” The findings were published online Oct. 3 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association. Healio (10/9, Oldt) and Psychiatric News (10/4) also covered the study.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (10/5, Mozes) reports, “Being born at an extremely low birth weight,” that is, at 2.2 pounds or less, “seems to increase the risk for developing mental health issues as an adult,” but such “risk can be lowered by lessening exposure to bullying and family stress during childhood and adolescence,” researchers found after reviewing “40 years’ worth of data” on “nearly 180 extremely low birth weight children who had been born between 1977 and 1982 and survived into adulthood,” then comparing “their adult mental health status…with that of 145 adults who had been born at a normal weight.” The findings were published online Oct. 3 in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Protecting Preemies From Stress Might Improve Later Mental Health,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, October 5, 2017.