Could asking teens a simple, but pointed, question about their mental health reveal whether they are at risk for suicide? It might, new research suggests. Since suicide is now the second leading cause of death among American teens, any strategy that could lower that risk may be worth trying. “The depression screening tool we used is not a suicide risk assessment tool, but it does include one question that asks [students] about thoughts of self-harm,” explained study lead author Dr. Deepa Sekhar, an associate professor in the department of pediatrics at Penn State College of Medicine. The question is: “How often have you been bothered by… thoughts that you would be better off dead or of hurting yourself in some way?” Compared with those teens who were not asked that question, those who were “were seven times more likely to be identified at-risk for suicide, and four times as likely to initiate treatment,” Sekhar noted. To assess the potential benefit of asking teens about suicidal thoughts, the researchers worked with students at 14 Pennsylvania high schools. About 46% of the nearly 13,000 students in the study were girls, and 43% were Black or Hispanic. The researchers used a standardized health questionnaire. Its main goal was to screen for symptoms of major depression disorder. It comprised nine questions, the last of which touches on suicide and…  read on >  read on >

When Elizabeth R.’s husband passed away from bone cancer in 2016, she felt grateful that her employer offered generous bereavement leave. Now 40, she worked in the development department of a large nonprofit cancer group at the time and felt ready to go back when her leave was up. However, about two weeks into her return, she realized it was too much, too soon. “Every time I would hear a cancer survivor or caregiver story, I had a reaction,” she recalled. Elizabeth, who asked that her last name not be used, decided to resign and has since remarried and started a second career as a massage therapist in Grand Rapids, Mich. But not every widow or widower who works has these options, and those who don’t may face increased physical and mental health challenges, a new study suggests. People who returned to work within three months of losing a spouse had higher perceived stress levels and greater systemic inflammation than retirees who had lost their partner. The less these folks earned at their job, the worse the mental health effects, the study showed. “It is important to recognize that widows and widowers have twice as much to deal with as other people who work and are not grieving a spouse,” said study author Jensine Paoletti. She is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Biobehavioral Mechanisms…  read on >  read on >

Laws bar advertising cannabis to teens, but that doesn’t mean they always work. In a new survey, researchers found that teens still see a lot of positive cannabis messages through social media posts. These messages influenced their intentions and actual use of cannabis, the survey found. When young people saw anti-cannabis messages, the intent to use lessened, but young people saw fewer of those messages, the study authors said. “Youth, in particular, have really grown up bombarded with cannabis information compared to previous generations,” said first author Jessica Willoughby, an associate professor of communications at Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman. “We found that they were seeing more positive messages about using cannabis and a lot less about the risks.” For the study, the researchers surveyed 350 teens and 966 college students across Washington state. Recreational marijuana has been legal in the state since 2012, though it has regulations aimed at preventing advertising cannabis to minors. These rules bar the use of cartoons or youth-oriented celebrities in cannabis advertising. Of course, the study noted, individuals can still post about cannabis on social media. And more than 80% of survey participants reported seeing pro-cannabis messages on social media. These posts talked about being high or claimed marijuana was harmless. The pro-cannabis messages most often encountered were from celebrities or in song lyrics. Teens and college students…  read on >  read on >

A phone call from a nurse may be the lifeline needed to help improve survival for heart failure patients. New research from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles finds that check-in calls may help save lives. “There’s a lot of new technology and new ideas about how to manage people who have heart failure remotely, but we demonstrated that low-tech and old-fashioned talking on the phone, essentially monitoring the response to, ‘How are you feeling?’ can improve outcomes,” said corresponding study author Dr. Ilan Kedan, a professor of cardiology at the institute. About one-third of people die within a year of being hospitalized for heart failure, a condition in which the heart does not pump enough blood to support the organs. About 15% to 20% of heart failure patients who were hospitalized return to the hospital within 30 days, according to past research. To study the impact of phone calls on outcomes, the researchers included just over 1,300 patients aged 50 or older who were hospitalized for acute heart failure between October 2011 and September 2013 at six academic medical centers in California. Half of the patients were randomized to receive a new post-hospitalization care plan. In this new plan, patients were given a blood pressure monitor and a scale. The patients received pre-discharge heart failure education, along with an average of…  read on >  read on >

Antidepressants are often prescribed to people suffering from chronic pain, but a new evidence review argues that the science behind these prescriptions is shaky at best. These drugs helped people in chronic pain in only a quarter of potential uses tested, and even then the effect ranged from low to moderate, according to a combined analysis of 26 prior reviews. “We found that, for most pain conditions and types of antidepressants, the evidence of their effectiveness was either inconclusive or they were ineffective,” said lead researcher Giovanni Ferreira, a research fellow at the University of Sydney Institute for Musculoskeletal Health in Australia. In particular, the review found scant evidence supporting the use of tricyclic antidepressants, he said. Previous studies have found that as many as 3 out of 4 antidepressant prescriptions for pain involved a tricyclic antidepressant, researchers said in background notes. “Tricyclic antidepressants such as amitriptyline are by far the most commonly used antidepressant for the treatment of pain,” Ferreira said. “But to our surprise most evidence for tricyclic antidepressants showed that the effectiveness of these antidepressants is inconclusive. We think this is a concerning finding.” The U.S. opioid epidemic has led doctors to look to non-opioid drugs as a means of pain relief. For example, a 2021 guideline for chronic pain management from the U.K’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)…  read on >  read on >