Children should feel safe at school, but learning of a mass shooting — like this week’s tragedy at Covenant School in Nashville — can threaten their sense of security. For parents, it can be challenging to know what to tell them. Two children’s mental health experts from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas offer some advice. Just as important as what’s said is what not to say, according to Dr. Beth (Betsy) Kennard, a professor of psychiatry and member of the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, and Dr. James Norcross, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry. “The first thing to consider is the developmental level of the children so that you can provide answers and information at their level of understanding,” Norcross said in a medical center news release. “All children, regardless of their age, should be encouraged to express their reactions to the event, and parents should feel free to talk about their emotions.” Kids are typically worried about their personal safety after experiencing a traumatic event, Norcross continued. “As parents, you should provide reassurance that they are safe and that you are there to protect them from harm,” he said. The Nashville shooting on Monday took the lives of three children and three adults. Police killed the shooter at the scene and are trying to piece together a motive for the attack. Gun…  read on >  read on >

Drug overdose deaths — both accidental and intentional — have quadrupled over the past 20 years among older adults in the United States, a new study finds. This increase in people ages 65 and older suggests the need for greater mental health and substance use policies, the authors said. “The dramatic rise in overdose fatalities among adults over 65 years of age in the past two decades underscores how important it is for clinicians and policymakers to think of overdose as a problem across the life span,” said co-author Chelsea Shover, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. “Updating Medicare to cover evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders is crucial, as is providing harm reduction supplies such as naloxone to older adults,” Shover said in a school news release. About three-fourths of those who died accidentally were using illicit drugs, including synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. In 67% of intentional overdoses, seniors used prescription medication, including opioids, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, antiepileptics and sedatives. The researchers calculated overdose deaths among seniors from 2002 to 2021, using a database from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The investigators compared demographics, specific drugs, and whether the deaths were intentional, unintentional or undetermined. They found that fatal overdoses quadrupled from 1,060 in 2002, which…  read on >  read on >

Living with a lot of transportation noise can increase your risk of suicide, new research suggests. A study from Switzerland found that with every 10-decibel increase of average road traffic noise at home, risk for suicides rose by 4%. An association between railway noise and suicide was less pronounced. “We used suicides as an indicator for mental health disorders as we do not have robust Swiss data on mental health diagnoses such as depression or anxiety,” said study co-author Benedikt Wicki, a PhD student at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. “Noise increases the mental load, contributing to the development of mental disorders or worsening of preexisting conditions,” he said in an institute news release. Mental health disorders affect nearly 1 billion people worldwide, including about 1.4 million people in Switzerland. They are a leading cause of suicide, the authors noted. In Switzerland, about 1,000 people die by suicide each year. Past research has linked environmental factors like air pollution or noise to adverse health effects such as cardiovascular diseases and general well-being, but robust evidence on the effects of transportation noise on mental health disorders remains scarce, according to the study. Biological mechanisms explaining why noise impacts mental health include sleep disturbance, increased levels of stress hormones, changes in brain function or a sense of loss of control. “Our brain registers noise as…  read on >  read on >

A new report from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reveals deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning are increasing in the United States. The report looked at carbon monoxide (CO) deaths from 2009 to 2019, finding 250 consumer product-related CO deaths in 2019, more than any other year. Generators and other engine-driven tools accounted for the largest percentage of deaths. Since 2009, portable generators alone have been associated with 765 CO-poisoning deaths not related to fires. That’s 40% of all CO deaths related to consumer products, a CPSC news release noted. Heating systems were associated with the second largest percentage of CO poisoning deaths not involving fires for 2019, with 69 deaths, or 28% of the total associated with products in this category. More than half of all CO deaths occur in the colder months of November, December, January and February. CO is an invisible killer because it is colorless and odorless. It can kill in minutes. Someone exposed to it may become unconscious before recognizing the symptoms of nausea, dizziness or weakness. The CPSC warns that portable generators should only be used outside. They should be at least 20 feet from the home with exhaust pointed away from any nearby building. The commission also offers these other safety precautions: Never operate a portable generator inside a home, garage, basement, crawlspace or shed, the commission…  read on >  read on >