Publications - Suicide

Suicide, at 50-year peak, pushes down US life expectancy, by Mike Stobbe, AP, Nov 29 2018.

“Suicides and drug overdoses pushed up U.S. deaths last year, and drove a continuing decline in how long Americans are expected to live. Overall, there were more than 2.8 million U.S. deaths in 2017, or nearly 70,000 more than the previous year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. It was the most deaths in a single year since the government began counting more than a century ago. ”

Facebook Increasingly Reliant on A.I. To Predict Suicide Risk, by Martin Kaste , NPR, Nov 17 2018.

“A year ago, Facebook started using artificial intelligence to scan people's accounts for danger signs of imminent self-harm. Facebook Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis is pleased with the results so far. ”

Concussions tied to doubled risk of suicide, by Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, Nov 13 2018.

“Survivors of traumatic brain injuries may be more than twice as likely to die by suicide as individuals without a history of injuries like concussions or skull fractures, a research review suggests...The current analysis focused on concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries and found these events associated with an elevated risk of suicidal thoughts and attempted suicides in addition to suicide deaths. While the exact reason for this connection isn’t clear, it’s possible that concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries lead to lasting changes in regions of the brain associated with regulating mood and decision making, the study authors note.   ”

States may now broaden mental health treatment under Medicaid, by Michael Nedelman, CNN, Nov 13 2018.

“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services may now allow for states to pursue Medicaid reimbursements for short-term inpatient treatment in mental health facilities despite a decades-old exclusion, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced Tuesday. In a letter to state Medicaid directors, CMS detailed a new Medicaid waiver opportunity through which states may bypass longstanding reimbursement restrictions on inpatient psychiatric treatment, which apply to mental health facilities with more than 16 beds. Azar said the original policy has posed a "significant barrier" to people getting the treatments they need. ”

Restless legs syndrome linked with risk for suicidal thoughts, by Linda Carroll, Reuters, Oct 16 2018.

“People with restless legs syndrome may be more likely to think about suicide or to actually make plans to take their own lives, compared to people without the troublesome condition, a new study suggests. Typically, people with restless legs syndrome say that when they’re lying down, 'they have a creepy-crawly feeling in their legs plus an irresistible urge to move,' explained study coauthor Dr. Brian Koo, an associate professor of neurology at the Yale Medical School. 'That urge to move prevents them from staying in bed...'It’s entirely possible that the poor sleep is leading to depression and suicidality... ”

LGBT youth at higher risk for suicide attempts, by Linda Carroll, Reuters, Oct 8 2018.

“LGBT adolescents are more likely than other kids their age to try to kill themselves, a new analysis confirms. Data pooled from 35 earlier studies show that sexual minority youth were more than three times as likely to attempt suicide as heterosexual peers, researchers report in JAMA Pediatrics. Transsexual youth were at highest risk, nearly six times as likely to attempt suicide as heterosexual peers, researchers reported. ”

Survey: 1 in 5 College Students Stressed, Considers Suicide, by Rick Nauert, PhD, Psych Central, Sep 11 2018.

“A new survey reveals that while college years may be a time of excitement and optimism they are also often stressful. And, the stress is accompanied by increased mental health diagnoses and the risk of suicide or suicidal thoughts. Brigham and Women’s hospital investigators queried more than 67,000 college students from across more than 100 institutions and found that while racial/ethnic, sexual or gender minorities are especially vulnerable, high rates for stress events, mental health diagnoses and the risk of suicide were reported among all students surveyed. ”

A traumatic brain injury may increase the risk of suicide, study says, by Amy Ellis Nutt, Washington Post, Aug 14 2018.

“Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death and disabilityin young adults in the developed world. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24. Though the reasons for any particular suicide are often inscrutable, research published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that at least a fraction of the blame could be placed on traumatic brain injuries....'Individuals with mild TBI, with concussion, had an elevated suicide risk by 81 percent,' said Trine Madsen of the Danish Research Institute of Suicide Prevention, one of the authors of the study. 'But individuals with severe TBI had a higher suicide risk that was more than double [the risk of someone with no TBI].' ”

Autism Can Mask the Warning Signs of Suicide, by Cheryl Platzman Weinstock and Spectrum, The Atlantic, Aug 10 2018.

“Studies over the past few years hint that suicidal ideation is more common in people with autism than in the general population, but the estimates vary so widely that some experts say they are meaningless. Still, there is some evidence that autistic people are especially vulnerable to suicide: One 2015 study that mined Sweden’s large National Patient Register found that they are 10 times as likely to die by suicide as those in the general population. (Women with autism are particularly at risk, even though men are more so in the general population.) Even when signs of suicidality are apparent, clinicians may dismiss them...Clinicians may wrongly assume that people on the spectrum don’t have complicated emotions, or they may discount their outbursts, says Paul Lipkin, the director of the Interactive Autism Network at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. ”

Parents' spirituality or religion tied to lower suicide risk in kids, by Linda Carroll, Reuters, Aug 9 2018.

“Kids are less likely to think about suicide or attempt to kill themselves if religion or spirituality is important to their parents, a small study suggests. And that is true even if the kids themselves didn’t think religion was important, according to the results published in JAMA Psychiatry...More parents than children reported that religion/spirituality was of high importance to them, 45 percent versus 25 percent. More children than parents reported that it was of no importance, 15 percent versus 4 percent...For both girls and boys...higher importance of religion/spirituality in parents was associated with a 39 percent lower risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts. The same was not true when it came to parents’ attendance at spiritual services. ”

Sharp Increase In Gun Suicides Signals Growing Public Health Crisis, by Brian Mann, NPR, Jul 26 2018.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's best data, from 2006 through 2016, show that roughly 218,000 Americans ended their lives using a firearm over that period.  'I believe we have a major public health crisis that we're not doing nearly enough about,' said Jennifer Stuber, policy director of Forefront Suicide Prevention at the University of Washington, which works to educate people in gun culture about the risks of firearm suicide.  'The public is really misinformed about this issue,' she said. 'They think it's homicide. But 60 to 80 percent of gun deaths are suicides, depending on what state you're in. So we have to start raising awareness about this.' ”

App, Brief Intervention May be Lifesaver for Suicidal Teens, by Traci Pedersen, Psych Central, Jul 20 2018.

“The first few weeks after a hospital discharge are the most critical for teens who were admitted for suicidal thoughts. A new study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, reveals that participating in an intervention program followed by the use of a personalized app, called BRITE, can significantly reduce suicide attempts in teens after they return home...'This approach merits further study,' Kennard said. 'Focusing on stress tolerance and giving access to positive emotion could be a lifesaving difference for so many patients.' ”

One in 3 Americans Takes Meds That May Cause Depression, by Traci Pedersen, Psych Central, Jun 14 2018.

“More than one in three Americans may be taking prescription medications that can lead to depression or increase the risk of suicide, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). And since many of these medications are common and not associated with depression — such as hormonal birth control medications, blood pressure and heart medications, proton pump inhibitors, antacids and painkillers — patients and clinicians may be unaware of the risks...'Many may be surprised to learn that their medications, despite having nothing to do with mood or anxiety or any other condition normally associated with depression, can increase their risk of experiencing depressive symptoms, and may lead to a depression diagnosis.' ”

U.S. Suicide Rates Are Rising Faster Among Women Than Men, by Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, Jun 14 2018.

“The number of people dying by suicide in the United States has risen by about 30 percent in the past two decades. And while the majority of suicide-related deaths today are among boys and men, a study published Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics finds that the number of girls and women taking their own lives is rising...when Hedegaard and her colleagues compared the rise in the rates of death by suicide from 2000 to 2016, the increase was significantly larger for females — increasing by 21 percent for boys and men, compared with 50 percent for girls and women...The biggest change was seen among women in late middle age. 'For females between the ages of 45 and 64, the suicide rate increased by 60 percent,' she says. 'That's a pretty large increase in a relatively short period of time.' ”

Rise in U.S. suicides highlights need for new depression drugs, by Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters, Jun 8 2018.

“A spike in suicide rates in the United States has cast fresh light on the need for more effective treatments for major depression, with researchers saying it is a tricky development area that has largely been abandoned by big pharmaceutical companies...With the availability of numerous cheap generic antidepressants, many of which offer only marginal benefit, developing medicines for depression is a tough sell...J&J is the only large pharmaceutical company making a major investment in a new antidepressant, Tracy said...Dr. Julie Goldstein Grumet, a behavioral health expert from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, said 122 people in the United States took their lives by suicide each day last week. Many were never even diagnosed with a mental illness. 'We’re missing opportunities to screen people for the risk of suicide,' she said. ”