HealthDay (3/20, Mozes) reports, “A daily dose of vitamin E or selenium supplements won’t keep dementia at bay in older men,” researchers found after studying some “7,500 males across the United States (including Puerto Rico) and Canada,” all of whom were aged 60 or older. The findings were published online in JAMA Neurology.

MedPage Today (3/20, Jenkins) and LiveScience (3/20, Rettner) also cover the story.

Related Links:

— “Vitamin E, Selenium Supplements Won’t Curb Men’s Dementia Risk,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, March 20, 2017.

USA Today (3/20, Slack) reports the Department of Veterans Affairs’ “suicide hotline is still sending nearly a third of calls to outside back-up centers despite pledges by Veterans Affairs officials to stop the practice last year after a scathing report found the centers had routed veterans to voicemail, an inspector general investigation found.” According to the IG’s new report, 30% of calls received by the hotline “rolled over to backup centers” as of November.

The Hill (3/20, Kheel) reports the IG also found that “none of the recommendations made in the original February 2016 report have been fully implemented.”

Related Links:

— “VA suicide hotline still riddled with problems, investigation finds,”Donovan Slack, USA Today, March 20, 2017.

A greater than 5,500-word Politico Magazine (3/17, Hattem) “Friday Cover” story reported that facing a growing number of suicides among his soldiers, Fort Bliss commander Major General Dana Pittard made it a top priority to focus on how to combat the problem and to find “the roots and causes” to prevent more suicides. A solution he came up with, Politico said, was to “aggressively expand mental health services at the base.” This included increasing mental health staff, “creat[ing] new social spaces and nighttime services, [and] treatment for substance abuse and post traumatic stress disorder.” The services were made available to all, regardless of “whether or not there was any reason to believe they were at risk of killing themselves – because he believed everyone was vulnerable to suicide.”

Related Links:

— “The General Who Went to War On Suicide,”Ben Hatten, Politico Magazine, March 17, 2017.

HealthDay (3/17, Preidt) reported, “US veterans with substance abuse problems have a higher risk of suicide than veterans who don’t,” researchers found after examining data on “more than four million veterans.” The findings were published online March 16 in the journal Addiction.

Related Links:

— “Drinking, Drug Abuse Doubles Veterans’ Suicide Risk: Study,”Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 17, 2017.

STAT (3/15, Sheridan) reports, “Richer countries have higher rates of anxiety in their population than poorer countries and” such “anxiety also interfered more with daily activities and responsibilities,” researchers from the World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Survey Consortium found. In particular, “there was a higher proportion of people in higher-income countries with generalized anxiety disorder [GAD]…and with severe GAD.” The findings were published online March 15 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Rich countries are more anxious than poorer countries,”Kate Sheridan, STAT, March 15, 2017.