Study Linking ADD To Suicide In Young Children May Prompt New Prevention Strategy
Prevention has typically focused on depression, but for children under 12, attention deficit disorder is a bigger factor, a new study finds. Meanwhile, the Boston Globe looks at the high rate of depression and suicide among veterinarians.
The New York Times:
More Child Suicides Are Linked To A.D.D. Than Depression, Study Suggests
Attention deficit disorder is the most common mental health diagnosis among children under 12 who die by suicide, a new study has found. Very few children aged 5 to 11 take their own lives, and little is known about these deaths. The new study, which included deaths in 17 states from 2003 to 2012, compared 87 children aged 5 to 11 who committed suicide with 606 adolescents aged 12 to 14 who did, to see how they differed. (Saint Louis, 9/19)
Boston Globe:
Why Do So Many Veterinarians Commit Suicide?
A 2014 federal Centers for Disease Control online survey of 10,000 practicing veterinarians published last year found that more than one in six American veterinarians has considered suicide. Veterinarians suffer from feelings of hopelessness, depression, and other psychiatric disorders two to three times more often than the general population. Two studies published in the British Veterinarian Association’s journal, The Veterinary Record, found suicide rates are double or more those of dentists and doctors, and four to six times higher than the general population. (Montgomery, 9/19)
In other news on mental health —
The Associated Press:
Police Officer Trial Spotlights Conflicts With Mentally Ill
Officers spent hours calling for a homeless man gripped by a range of delusions to drop his knives, abandon his campsite and walk down the rocky slope with them. But James Boyd stayed put, shouting about a made-up "matter of national security" and a mission for the Department of Defense. In short bursts of outrage, he yelled threats at officers. At another point, he offered them gum. Nineteen Albuquerque and state police officers, including tactical officers and K-9 units, responded to the scene of Boyd's illegal campsite, many surrounding him with weapons drawn before it appeared, according to a police video, that he might surrender. "I'll put my hands on my head; I'm not a criminal" said the 38-year-old Boyd, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Moments later, he was fatally shot after police deployed a smoke bomb and authorities say he brandished his knives. (9/17)
PBS NewsHour:
Why Do Suicidal Patients Wait Hours For A Hospital Bed?
Health workers and lawmakers are working to accommodate patients like Durant as America endures a suicide surge, with suicide deaths rising from 29,000 people to 43,000 people between 1999 and 2014. Some have tried to increase the number of psychiatric beds available to suicidal patients, a disappearing resource in recent years that forces patients like [Brie Bullinger] Durant to wait longs hours for care. Meanwhile, others are assessing whether the hospital is even the right place to start considering treatment. (Segal, 9/18)
Kaiser Health News:
The Women’s Health Issue No One Talks About
About 1 out of 5 women in America will experience depression in her lifetime, twice the number of men. Some are depressed throughout the course of their lives; others, like Kieley, become depressed following a big change. Over the past decade, people have increasingly treated depression with medication: Starting in 1994, the number of antidepressant prescriptions written by doctors went up 400 percent over a 10-year period. And today, about 15 percent of women take an antidepressant. Among women age 40 to 59, that number is nearly 23 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Gold, 9/19)
