U.S. Gun Suicides Continue Record Rise

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 27, 2025
• Full Page

Gun-related suicides in the U.S. reached record highs for the third straight year in 2023, a new report on gun violence says.

About 27,300 gun-related deaths — 58% of all gun deaths — were suicides in 2023, according to research from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg S...

Trump Administration To End Lifeline for LGBTQ+ Youth This July

• I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
• June 20, 2025
• Full Page

A popular crisis support line for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults is shutting down July 17, federal officials confirmed this week.

The “Press 3” option on the 988 National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which offers specialized support for LGBTQ+ callers, will ...

Electroshock Therapy Appears To Reduce Suicide Risk Among People With Depression

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 17, 2025
• Full Page

People with severe depression who receive electroshock therapy are significantly less likely to commit suicide, a new evidence review says.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) lowered the risk of ...

Troubled Kids Wait a Half-Day — Or More — In ER To Get Mental Health Care

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• June 4, 2025
• Full Page

Troubled children and teenagers are languishing hours in chaotic hospital emergency rooms, waiting for a psychiatric bed to open, a new study says.

About 1 in 3 kids who go to an emergency room (ER) amid a mental health crisis wait at least 12 hours to be transferred to ...

Sexual Assault Triples Suicide Risk Among Veterans

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• April 30, 2025
• Full Page

Sexual assault and sexual harassment during military service dramatically increases veterans’ risk of suicide later in life, a new study says.

Suicide risk is tripled among men and women who experienced sexual trauma while serving, researchers reported April 28 in ...

Most Americans Want Easy Early Testing For Alzheimer's

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• April 30, 2025
• Full Page

Most Americans want to know if they’re destined to lose their brain power to Alzheimer’s disease, according to an annual repor...

'Zero Suicide' Model Leads To Fewer Suicides in Health Systems

• I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
• April 9, 2025
• Full Page

A health care program focused on suicide prevention has helped lower suicides and attempts, a new study shows.

The program, called the "Zero Suicide Model," relies on screeni...

Social Media Can Drag Down Troubled Young People

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• March 28, 2025
• Full Page

Is there a person in your life who just can’t stop scrolling social media, almost as if they’ve formed an emotional dependence on sites like Instagram and TikTok?

Such an attachment might be associated with worse mental health symptoms among young people bein...

Death Risk Doubled For ER Patients On Psychedelics

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• March 3, 2025
• Full Page

People who land in the ER after using hallucinogens are more than twice as likely to die in a handful of years, a new study says.

Psychedelics users treated at a hospital are 2.6 times more likely than average folks to die from any cause within five years, researchers re...

Seniors Overlooked By Suicide Prevention Programs

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• March 3, 2025
• Full Page

Suicide prevention campaigns are overlooking seniors, even though people 75 and older have the highest rates of suicide for any age group, a new study says.

None of the seven most prominent suicide prevention programs include any messaging aimed at at-risk seniors on the...

A Suicide Death Occurs Every 43 Seconds Worldwide

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• February 26, 2025
• Full Page

A person dies by suicide once every 43 seconds, and it’s more than likely a man, according to a new global assessment of suicide risk.

Men die from suicide at twice the rate of women, and their attempts result in death three times more often, researchers reported i...

Weight-Obsessed Teens Face Triple the Odds for Self-Harm

• Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
• February 12, 2025
• Full Page

Even if a teen is at a healthy weight, just thinking they are overweight can greatly raise their odds for self-harm, a new study finds.

“What we found was that the perception of being overweight has a much stronger effect of suicidal ideation than the objective mea...

Crisis Services Haven't Adapted To New 988 Suicide Hotline

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• January 30, 2025
• Full Page

Most community crisis services did not expand following the launch of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, potentially blunting the effectiveness of the hotline, a new study says.

Walk-in psychiatric services, mobile crisis response units and suicide prevention program...

The Public Policies That Really Help Prevent Suicide

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• January 9, 2025
• Full Page

Some of the most effective public policies for suicide prevention aren’t crafted with suicide or mental health in mind, a new study says.

Efforts to increase the minimum wage, prohibit gender discrimination, or ...

New Youth Mental Health Program Shows Promise

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• December 19, 2024
• Full Page

Teenagers who land in an ER with a mental health crisis can be effectively helped by a community-based program.

New research shows that troubled teens placed in such a program were significantly less likely to return to the ER or require inpatient psychiatric care due to...

Reaching Age at Which a Parent Died by Suicide Raises Risk in Adult Child

• Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay Reporter
• November 25, 2024
• Full Page

When people whose parents died by suicide reach that same age, their own risk often spikes, Danish researchers warn.

Reporting in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviors, the re...

Telehealth Can Help Prevent Suicide in Those at High Risk

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 13, 2024
• Full Page

Therapy provided via telehealth can reduce a person’s risk of suicide, a new study reports.

Cognitive behavior therapy reduces suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts even if delivered for a short time via telehealth, according to results published Nov. 12 in the jo...

History of Concussion Could Raise a New Mom's Odds for Mental Health Issues

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• November 4, 2024
• Full Page

Women who’ve had concussions are more likely to suffer severe mental health problems following childbirth, a new study shows...

One Day of the Week Has Highest Suicide Risk

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• October 24, 2024
• Full Page

A “case of the Mondays” is more perilous than just the return-to-work blues, a new study warns.

Suicide risk is highest on ...

GLP-1 Weight-Loss Meds Won't Raise Teens' Suicide Risk, May Even Lower It

• HealthDay Reporter
• October 14, 2024
• Full Page

As with any new drug, parents and doctors may worry that the use of GLP-1 weight-loss meds by children and teens might raise psychiatric risks, including the risk for suicide and suicidal thoughts.

But a new study involving more than 54,000 U.S. adolescents found no such...

Were FDA's 'Black Box' Warnings on Antidepressants a Mistake? Youth Suicides Rose Afterwards

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• October 8, 2024
• Full Page

"Black Box” warnings added to antidepressants might have contributed to an increase in suicide attempts and deaths among young people, ...

Restrictive State Laws Tied to Higher Suicide Risk for Trans Youth

• Robin Foster HealthDay Reporter
• October 2, 2024
• Full Page

In a finding that illustrates the damage that laws targeting transgender people can cause, new research shows that trans and nonbinary youth in states with such laws are more likely to attempt suicide.

How much more likely? The study authors found the laws triggered up t...

Adding Routine 'Suicide Care' to Primary Care Could Save Lives

• Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay Reporter
• October 2, 2024
• Full Page

More and more, primary care doctors routinely ask patients a question that may come as a surprise: Do you ever have suicidal thoughts?

Now, new research shows it's a simple intervention that can save lives.

When suicide care was made a routine part of primary care ...

U.S. Suicide Death Rate Is Rising Again

• Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
• September 26, 2024
• Full Page

U.S. suicide rates are ticking back upward again after a dip during the pandemic, new statistics show.

Suicide deaths per 100,000 people had fallen from 14.2 recorded in the pre-pandemic year of 2018 to 13.5 in 2020.

However, by 2022, the latest year for which sta...

988 Mental Health Crisis Calls Now Link to Caller Location, Not Area Code

• Robin Foster HealthDay Reporter
• September 25, 2024
• Full Page

In a move that could mean more Americans in crisis get help and get it quickly, federal officials announced Tuesday that major cellphone carriers now have the technology to direct 988 callers to local mental health services based on their location instead of their area code.

Many Former NFL Players Believe They Have CTE, Raising Suicide Risk

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• September 23, 2024
• Full Page

One in three former NFL players believe they have football-related brain damage that’s doing untold harm to their lives, a new study finds.

Unfortunately, their fears might be harming their mental health on top of whatever risks they face from