The New York Times (8/11, Hoffman, Subscription Publication) reports the first national survey to identify lesbian, gay, and bisexual “high school students and track their health risks confirms” they “are indeed at far greater risk for depression, bullying and many types of violence than their straight peers.” The article says this was “the first time the federal government’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the gold-standard of adolescent health data collection, looked at sexual identity.”

Data show the 1.3 million high school students who describe themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual “were three times more likely than straight students to have been raped.” They skipped school more often because about one-third of them had been bullied at school, and they were twice more likely than “heterosexual students to have been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property.”

Related Links:

— “Gay and Lesbian High School Students Report ‘Heartbreaking’ Levels of Violence,” Jan Hoffman, New York Times, August 11, 2016.

Reuters (8/10, Rapaport) reports, “Women in the military who experience combat have a much greater risk than those who don’t of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health issues,” researchers found after examining “data from post-deployment mental health screenings for more than 42,000 women enlisted in the US Army and deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2008 to 2011.” The findings were published online Aug. 1 in the Journal of Traumatic Stress.

Related Links:

— “Women in combat, like men, at risk for PTSD,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, August 10, 2016.

Medical Daily (8/10, Olson) reports that “a study published in the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry reveals consuming a moderate amount of coffee on a regular basis may also serve as an antidepressant strong enough to relieve symptoms of suicide.” The four-year, 200,000-participant study revealed that “regular coffee drinkers, who consumed between two to four cups a day, were 50 percent less likely to attempt suicide.”

Related Links:

— “Drinking Coffee May Prevent Suicide: How The Beverage Improves Mental Health,” Samantha Olson, Medical Daily, August 10, 2016.

HealthDay (8/10) reports, “People whose parents and grandparents suffered from depression are at much higher risk of developing the illness,” researchers found. Included in the study were “251 young people averaging 18 years of age, plus their parents and grandparents.” The findings were published online Aug. 10 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Depression Can Stalk Families Through Generations,” , HealthDay, August 10, 2016.

HealthDay (8/10, Norton) reports, “In a study of over seven million people,” investigators “found that those who’d been hospitalized for infections were 42 percent more likely to die of suicide compared to people with no history of serious infection.” Notably, individuals “hospitalized for HIV/AIDS or the liver infection hepatitis showed the highest risk – more than twice that of people without those diseases, the study found.”

Related Links:

— “Serious Infections Tied to Suicide Risk,” Amy Norton, HealthDay, August 10, 2016.