USA Today (11/28, Godlasky, Dastagir) reports, “Americans are more than twice as likely to die by their own hands, of their own will, than by someone else’s.” USA Today adds that suicide rates are up “nearly 30 percent” since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, says USA Today, “money to research and combat suicide continues to lag behind other leading killers and even non-fatal conditions.” The National Institutes of Health “spent $68 million on suicide last year” while spending “nearly five times” as much on “studying sleep and 10 times more on breast cancer.” In response, “NIH officials say they do not expressly budget by disease,” and that it “spent $2.7 billion on mental health.” Michael Lauer, NIH deputy director for extramural research, said, “A large portion of the research is not disease-oriented but based on human biology. For instance, if we’re studying brain function, it might be pertinent to suicide, but we might not necessarily categorize it as suicide.”

Safety Plan May Help Prevent Suicide. USA Today (11/28, Dastagir) reports, “In 2016, 9.8 million American adults seriously thought about suicide,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. USA Today adds that experts said those who have “suicidal thoughts should create a personalized suicide safety plan.” Jill Harkavy-Friedman, a clinical psychologist and vice president of research for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said, “What a safety plan does is it helps you figure out beforehand a strategy for handling distress.”

Those Left Behind After Suicide Face Greater Risks Themselves. USA Today (11/28, Dastagir) reports on those “left behind after a suicide” which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, amounted to 1.44 million people in 2016. They also “face an increased risk of suicide themselves.” USA offers advice for survivors from the American Psychological Association. USA Today adds, “the bereaved can heal, suicide prevention experts said, but their pain is often underestimated.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide Becoming More Frequent, CDC Says, “Anne Godlasky and Alia E. Dastagir, USA TODAY, November 28, 2018.

Psychiatric News (11/28) reports on a study published in JAMA Psychiatry finding that “people who have hallucinatory experiences and delusional beliefs may be more likely to think about, attempt, and die by suicide than those without psychotic experiences.” The study, a meta-analysis, included “10 longitudinal population studies” that “included 84,285 people from 23 countries.”

Related Links:

— “Psychotic Experiences May Increase Risk of Suicidal Behaviors, Meta-Analysis Finds, Psychiatric News , November 28, 2018.

USA Today (11/27, O’Donnell) reports physicians “say alcohol is often the most dangerous substance for the body to withdraw from – and still more so, when attempted without medical supervision.” Currently, some “16 million people in the United States have alcohol use disorder, which the” National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines “as ‘compulsive alcohol use, loss of control over alcohol intake, and a negative emotional state when not using.’” In 2016, “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted 831 deaths…that could be characterized as related to alcohol withdrawal.” Currently, the NIAAA does “not have an estimate of deaths from alcohol detox.”

Related Links:

— “Quitting alcohol can be deadly: Hundreds in the US die each year, “Jayne O’Donnell, USA TODAY, November 27, 2018.

Multiple Sclerosis News Today (11/27, Gisler) reports a study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry found that “changeable lifestyle factors influence the risk and severity of depression associated with multiple sclerosis (MS).” The researchers studied 2,224 patients with MS for the study. The research found an association between alcohol consumption and depression, while a “healthy diet and vitamin D and omega-3 supplementation had a somewhat positive influence on changes in depression score.”

Related Links:

— “Lifestyle Factors Tied to MS-related Depression, Large Study Finds, “Santiago Gisler, Multiple Sclerosis News Today, November 27, 2018.

Healio (11/27, Demko) reports that in “the first published” research that examined “viewing patterns and reactions to the show ‘13 Reasons Why,’” investigators “found that about half of youth viewers presenting to a psychiatric” emergency department “with suicide-related concerns reported the series increased their suicide risk.” Included in the study were “87 parent-youth dyads – 71% of the youth were female – who completed a battery of questionnaires to examine their interaction with the show during their ED visit between July 2017 and March 2018.” The findings were published online Nov. 20 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “‘13 Reasons Why’ may influence suicide risk among vulnerable youths, “Savannah Demko, Healio, November 27, 2018.