On its website and on its “Morning Edition” program, NPR (7/26, Mann) reports that “the overwhelming majority of gun deaths in America” are “caused by people deliberately harming themselves,” often in a “highly impulsive act.” Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that from 2006 through 2016, “roughly 218,000 Americans ended their lives using a firearm over that period.” Psychiatrist Paul Nestadt, MD, who studies suicide at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, said, “As I looked into suicide more and more, it became very clear that access to lethal means, specifically guns, was one of the most important risk factors that we could address.” Data indicate that “having a gun available in the home or workplace make those attempts at self-harm far more likely to succeed.”

Related Links:

— “Sharp Increase In Gun Suicides Signals Growing Public Health Crisis, “Brian Mann, NPR, July 26, 2018.

Healio (7/26, Demko) reports, “Young people at very high risk for psychosis seemed to show cognitive deficits,” researchers concluded in a study that “evaluated 173 young adults at ultra-high risk for psychosis and 384 healthy controls aged 14 to 29 years.” The study did reveal, however, that young people “whose high-risk status remitted appeared to recover cognitively.” The findings were published online July 25 in JAMA Psychiatry. The author of an accompanying editorial called for further “research in treating cognitive deficits in patients on the schizophrenia spectrum,” according to Healio.

Related Links:

— “Cognitive deficits may identify youth most likely to develop psychosis, “Savannah Demko, Healio, July 26, 2018.

MedPage Today (7/25, George) reports researchers found that “people who had orthostatic hypotension at an average age of 54 demonstrated a higher risk of dementia and ischemic stroke as they aged than people who didn’t have orthostatic hypotension.” The findings were published in Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Orthostatic Hypotension at Midlife Tied to Dementia, “Judy George, MedPage Today, July 25, 2018.

Medscape (7/25, Anderson, Subscription Publication) reports the sleep drugs zaleplon, zolpidem, and zopiclon may increase the risk of fractures in patients with dementia, according to a study presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2018. In the study that included people “who had received a Z-drug prescription (n = 2952) and those who had not (n = 1651),” the researchers found that the “so-called Z drugs were found to increase overall fracture risk by 40% and the risk for hip fracture by 59%.” HealthDay (7/25, Preidt) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Sleeping Pills May Be Poor Choice for Dementia Patients, ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 25, 2018.

USA Today (7/25, Weintraub) reports researchers have found that “aggressively lowering blood pressure in people at high risk for heart attacks and stroke also reduced their likelihood of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition that often leads to dementia.” The researchers found that patients who were “treated to reduce their systolic blood pressure…to 120 mm Hg were 19 percent less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment than those whose blood pressure was targeted to 140 mm Hg.”

The Wall Street Journal (7/25, Loftus, Subscription Publication) reports the findings were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.

Bloomberg News (7/25, Cortez) reports that based on the study’s results, drugs that lower blood pressure could “reduce the risk of memory loss and dementia.”

Related Links:

— “Aggressively lowering blood pressure could reduce risk of developing dementia, study finds, “Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY, July 25, 2018.