The Biden administration is allocating $232.2 million in grants to help stem suicides and improve behavioral health care for at-risk groups. Suicide is happening at an “alarming” rate, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Last year alone, nearly 50,000 Americans died by suicide, up 2.6% from 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. During this month, we are reminded that suicide is preventable, and no one should go through a suicide-related crisis alone,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said Wednesday, emphasizing that the Biden administration “is deeply committed to tackling the mental health challenges facing America, and particularly focused on addressing the alarming rates of suicide.” About $200 million of the grant will be used to build local capacity for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and related crisis services. The national suicide hotline was revamped last year with a three-digit number to make it easier to recall in a crisis. The new lifeline received nearly 5 million calls in its first year, almost 2 million more for similar timeframes on the previous hotline, according to HHS. Still, about 82% of respondents to a National Alliance on Mental Illness poll released in July were unaware that they could call or text those three digits for mental health help. With more…  read on >  read on >

A new study suggests there may be a link between job loss and miscarriage or stillbirth. The risk of miscarriage or stillbirth doubled after a pregnant woman or her partner lost a job, European researchers found. Their study was published Sept. 28 in the journal Human Reproduction. “Further research would need to be carried out to understand if losing one’s job actually causes the increased risk of pregnancy loss,” said author Selin Köksal, senior research officer at the University of Essex Institute for Social and Economic Research in England. She said it would be helpful to look at different socioeconomic groups to assess exactly how a job loss relates to higher risk of a miscarriage or a stillbirth. “Is it because of economic hardship, or an experience of an unexpected event or is it due to loss of social status?” Köksal said in a journal news release. “These are the questions that I am hoping to answer in the future.” For this study, the researchers used data from a survey of 40,000 U.K. households conducted between 2009 and 2022. The data included more than 8,000 pregnancies for which there was information on date of conception and outcome. Overall, 11.6% ended in miscarriage, though the number is likely higher because many pregnancies are lost before women realize they’re expecting. Researchers also found 38 stillbirths, representing 0.5%…  read on >  read on >

A newer understanding of multiple sclerosis (MS) suggests that psychiatric conditions like anxiety and depression may emerge long before classic MS symptoms. “For a long time, it was thought that MS only really began clinically when a person experienced their first demyelinating event, such as in the form of vision problems,” said senior author Helen Tremlett. She is a professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia’s Djavad Mowafaghian Center for Brain Health, in Vancouver. “But we’ve come to understand there is a whole period preceding those events where the disease presents itself in more indirect ways,” Tremlett said in a university news release. The findings were welcomed by Sharon Roman, an MS patient for 25 years. “We take many things in life for granted — walking, balance, vision, speech, even the simple act of swallowing — until one day it’s taken from us by MS,” Roman said in the news release. “The better we can identify the early signs and symptoms of MS, the earlier we can recognize, diagnose and treat it. We can help prevent people from being diagnosed the way I was, with a massive attack and hospitalization, and prevent the losses I’ve experienced. Earlier treatment may help slow progression.” MS is an autoimmune disorder with varied symptoms that can make it harder to diagnose and more easily confused with other…  read on >  read on >

Nurses, health technicians and health care support workers face a higher risk of suicide than the general U.S. population does, an alarming new study shows. Researchers pointed out these workers have to perform stressful tasks while caring for ill patients and managing heavy workloads, with little control over patient outcomes. Not only that, but “health care workers’ relationship roles are often characterized as having a kind of a high achievement and a perfectionistic or compulsive personality traits that can make them excessively devoted to their work and have trouble taking time off,” said study first author Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor in Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry. “And all of this can contribute to poor self-care and delay them recognizing a need for help. There’s also a lot of stigma that continues just around mental health care.” The study, published Sept. 26 in the Journal of the American Medical Association,, looked at a nationally representative group of more than 1.8 million adults ages 26 and older in data that spanned from 2008 through 2019. Health care workers were divided into six groups — physicians, registered nurses, other health care-diagnosing or treating practitioners, health technicians, health care support workers, and social/behavioral health workers — and compared them with non-health care workers. Analysis of the data showed that health care support workers, registered nurses and health technicians…  read on >  read on >