Tag: study

CDC: US Suicide Rate Has Risen 30% Since 1999

The Centers for Disease Control also found that only half of people who died by suicide had been diagnosed with a mental health issue.

A new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that suicide rates have risen by 30% across the United States since 1999.

The report, released Thursday, made another surprising revelation: only half of those who took their own life were diagnosed with a mental health condition. This goes against the commonly-held belief that depression is the main cause of suicide.

The CDC reports that other leading contributors to suicide besides mental illness include struggles in relationships, finances, and substance abuse.

“Suicide rates in the United States have risen nearly 30% since 1999, and mental health conditions are one of several factors contributing to suicide,” wrote CDC researchers in the report. “From 1999 to 2015, suicide rates increased among both sexes, all racial/ethnic groups, and all urbanization levels.”

The heavily covered tragic suicides of fashion designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain reflect the increasing risk of suicide by Americans in their age bracket.

“Middle-aged adults had the largest number of suicides and a particularly high increase in suicide rates. These findings are disturbing,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director at the CDC.

The only age group that did not see an increase in suicide rates were those over the age of 75. The increase in suicide rate was otherwise seen across the board, culminating in nearly 45,000 deaths by suicide in 2016.

“What we tried to do in this study was look at the state level at trends over time,” explained Dr. Schuchat. “Unfortunately, the suicide rates went up more than 30% in half of the states.”

The only state that did not have an increase in suicide rate was Nevada, but that state has experienced a historically high suicide rate as is.

“A key thing that we focused on was looking at individuals who committed suicide, comparing those with mental health diagnoses with those who didn’t,” said Dr. Schuchat. “More than half of all the individuals who committed suicide had no mental health diagnoses.”

While these rates seem bleak, Dr. Schuchat believes it’s possible to turn the situation around.

“I have learned that it is important to talk about survivor stories. We know that suicide is preventable,” Schuchat said. “We are in a different era right now, with social media increased and also social isolation is high… We think helping overcome the isolation can improve the connectedness.”

View the original article at thefix.com

11 June 2018
The US Workforce Is Taking More Drugs

A new study about workplace drug testing found that opioid use declined between 2016 and 2017, while use of other drugs is on the rise.

Members of the workforce in the United States are testing positive for drugs more often than they have in the past 10 years, according to a new study that analyzed more than 10 million drug test results.

The study, conducted by Quest Diagnostics, painted an interesting picture of the ways that drug use is affecting different areas of the country. Overall, 4.2% of people drug tested at work tested positive, up from 3.5% in 2012, which was a 30-year low.

“It’s unfortunate that we mark 30 years of the Drug-Free Workplace Act with clear evidence that drugs continue to invade the country’s workplaces. Not only have declines appeared to have bottomed out, but also in some drug classes and areas of the country drug positivity rates are increasing,” said Barry Sample, senior director of science and technology at Quest Diagnostics.

The data, perhaps unsurprisingly, showed that marijuana use is up in states that have legalized recreational use. It also indicated that use of cocaine and methamphetamine is on the rise.

“These changing patterns and geographical variations may challenge the ability of employers to anticipate the ‘drug of choice’ for their workforce or where to best focus their drug prevention efforts to ensure a safe and healthy work environment,” Sample said.

Cocaine use increased for the fifth year in a row. The jump was particularly sharp in Nebraska (which had a stunning 91% increase between 2016 and 2017), Idaho (88% increase) and Washington (31% increase).

Use of methamphetamine was up in midwest and southern states. Between 2013 and 2017 positive tests for methamphetamine positivity increased 167% in the region covering Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin; 160% in the region covering Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee; 150% in the region covering New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania; and 140% in the region covering the eastern seaboard from Delaware to Florida.

The number of people testing positive for opioids declined 17% between 2016 and 2017, suggesting that efforts to address the opioid epidemic have been paying off.

“The depth of our large-scale analysis supports the possibility that efforts by policymakers, employers, and the medical community to decrease the availability of opioid prescriptions and curtail the opioid crisis is working to reduce their use, at least among the working public,” said Kim Samano, scientific director at Quest Diagnostics.

Matt Nieman, general counsel at the Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace said that the opioid numbers were encouraging, but there was still work to be done.

“The 10-year high in positivity rates—spurred by nationwide surges in cocaine and methamphetamine positivity as well as double-digit marijuana spikes in states with newly implemented recreational laws—serves as a stark warning that efforts to prevent substance abuse in the workplace are as important today as ever,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

8 June 2018
Can The Mere Expectation Of Alcohol Boost Dopamine?

A new study examined the dopamine release levels of people with a family history of alcoholism.

Those with a history of alcohol-related issues in their families may produce more dopamine at the idea of a drink, a new study has found.

The study indicates that people who have a history of alcohol use disorders in their family actually release more dopamine when presented with the prospect of a drink containing alcohol. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with the brain’s reward and pleasure centers.

For such individuals, the study found, the dopamine release is greater than for those who do not have a history of alcohol use disorder in the family or for those who have been diagnosed with it already.

The study, published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, was fairly small. Researchers looked at 65 individuals, 34 of which had no alcohol use disorder in their families or themselves, 16 with a history of it in their family but without their own diagnosis, and 15 who had been diagnosed with alcohol use disorder.

Each participant was given two drinks—one containing alcohol and one without. Participants were not told which drink they would be given first. But, as Bustle reports, “Those who received the placebo first could intuit that the alcoholic drink would be second. In other words, they were cued to expect alcohol.”

During this, researchers used a PET scan (an imaging technique) to monitor the levels of dopamine released as a response to the drinks. Because dopamine is connected to the reward center in the brain, its release is associated with things people enjoy. Bustle states that while all three groups in the study had similar dopamine-releasing reactions to the drink containing alcohol, results varied when it came to the non-alcoholic placebo.

“We found that the FHP (family history positive) participants had a much more pronounced response to the placebo drink than the other groups, indicating that expectation of alcohol caused the FHP group to release more reward center dopamine,” study author Lawrence Kegeles of Columbia University said, according to Bustle.

This outcome implies that dopamine release could “reinforce alcohol consumption,” Bustle notes. This is especially true for those susceptible to alcohol use disorder.

“This research finding exemplifies how advances in imaging brain chemistry using PET scanning can provide new insights into how differences in brain function in people with a family history of alcoholism can explain their own potential for addiction,” said Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging editor Dr. Cameron Carter, according to Bustle.

Study participants were not followed up with, Bustle notes, so it is unknown if the results of this study did predict alcohol use disorder in their futures.

View the original article at thefix.com

6 June 2018
Opioids To Blame For 1 in 5 Young Adult Deaths

Opioid-related deaths were responsible for 1.7 million lost years of life in 2016, according to a new study.

In 2016, opioids were involved in 20% of deaths of young Americans ages 24 to 35, according to a new study.

The findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WONDER Multiple Cause of Death Online Database, which shows the cause of death, age and sex of people who pass away. Researchers looked at the years between 2001 and 2016.

During that time period, deaths that were attributable to opioids increased 292%. In 2016, opioid-related deaths were responsible for 1.7 million lost years of life, according to analysis by the researchers.

Despite the fact that there has been a lot of attention given to the effects of opioids on middle-aged Americans, the impact was most profound for younger people. In addition to the high death rates for people in their 20s and 30s, opioids caused 12.4% of deaths of youth aged 15 to 24.

“Premature death from opioid-related causes imposes an enormous public health burden across the United States,” researchers wrote. “The recent increase in deaths attributable to opioids among those aged 15 to 34 years highlights a need for targeted programs and policies that focus on improved addiction care and harm reduction measures in this high-risk population.”

The opioid-related death rate for people aged 25-34 nearly quadrupled between 2001 and 2016.

“I think that the fact that one out of every five deaths among young adults is from an opioid, if not shocking, should at least create pause for people to realize how huge of an impact this early loss of life is having,” Tara Gomes, an epidemiologist and researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, who led the study, told Tonic.

Overall, researchers found that opioids were responsible for 1.5% of all deaths in the United States, or about 1 in 65. That means that opioids resulted in more lost years of life in 2016 than high blood pressure, HIV/AIDs and pneumonia. In 2001, just 1 in 255 deaths were attributable to opioids.

Men were more likely than woman to die from an opioid overdose, researchers found. In fact, men made up 67.5% of all opioid-related deaths in 2016.

While young people had the highest percentage of opioid-related deaths, the sharpest percentage increase was among older Americans. People over 55 made up 18.4% of opioid deaths in 2016. Between 2001 and 2016 the opioid-related death rate for people age 55 to 64 increased 754%; for people age 65 and older it increased 635%.

View the original article at thefix.com

6 June 2018