USA Today (8/25, Healy) reports that according to a new policy statement issued today and published online in the journal Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics “says delaying the start of high school and middle school classes to 8:30 a.m. or later is ‘an effective countermeasure to chronic sleep loss’ and the ‘epidemic’ of delayed, insufficient, and erratic sleep patterns among the nation’s teens.” Notably, “other major health organizations, including the American Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have all highlighted insufficient sleep in adolescents as a serious health risk, as has US Education Secretary Arne Duncan,” explained Terra Ziporyn Snider, executive director of the group Start School Later.

The AP (8/25, Tanner) points out that research has “found that most US students in middle school and high school don’t get the recommended amount of sleep – 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 hours on school nights; and that most high school seniors get an average of less than seven hours.” The “evidence on potential dangers for teens who get too little sleep is ‘extremely compelling’ and includes depression, suicidal thoughts, obesity, poor performance in school and on standardized tests and car accidents from drowsy driving, said Dr. Judith Owens, the policy’s lead author and director of sleep medicine at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC.”

Related Links:

— “Docs urge delayed school start times for teens,” Michelle Healy, USA Today, August 25, 2014.

The New York Times (8/24, BU4, Korkki, Subscription Publication) reports that a new study in The American Sociological Review “aimed to see whether the stress of work-life conflicts could be eased if employees had more control over their schedules, including being able to work from home,” finding that “compared with another group that did not have the same flexibility, employees interviewed by the researchers said they felt happier and less stressed, had more energy and were using their time more effectively.”

Study author Erin Kelley “emphasized that for programs like these to be successful, they must be applied department wide and have the full support of managers.” The study was “financed by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Related Links:

— “Yes, Flexible Hours Ease Stress. But Is Everyone on Board?,” Phyllis Korkki, New York Times, August 23, 2014.

In an opinion piece in the Indianapolis Star (8/22), Richard Gunderman, MD, chancellor’s professor at Indiana University, and Mark Mutz, an attorney and consultant, wrote in wake of comedian Robin Williams’ suicide and lifelong struggle against substance abuse, “the president of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Paul Summergrad, was quoted as saying that we must ‘stop seeing these illnesses as faults and blames, and instead see them for what they are: medical conditions, genetic conditions and brain disorders.’”

But, according to Gunderman and Mutz, “it would be a mistake to say that disorders such as depression, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts are simply a reflection of biochemical imbalances and nothing more,” when certain “other factors, such as life experiences, are clearly important.”

Related Links:

— “Factors that lead to suicide are complex, as is life itself,” Richard Gunderman and Mark Mutz, Indianapolis Star, August 22, 2014.

The Tennessean (8/23, Wilemon) reports that a new study in JAMA Psychiatry indicates that “people battling severe depression have greater odds of recovery if they confront their fears through cognitive therapy while taking antidepressants,” and that “odds of recovery improved by as much as 30 percent over those who just took the medicine.” The article notes that the study “was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health.”

Related Links:

— “Vanderbilt research shows cognitive therapy aids depressed,” Tom Wilemon, The Tennessean, August 23, 2014.

NBC News (8/21, Fox) reports on its website that research published in the Journal of Medical Ethics indicates that “more than 600 people traveled to Switzerland to die between 2008 and 2012, and the numbers doubled over those years.” Study author Dr. Saskia Gauthier wrote, “The main reasons were neurological disease (47 percent), followed by cancer (37 percent), rheumatic and cardiovascular disease.”

The New York Times (8/21, Belluck, Subscription Publication) reports that researchers found twenty-one individuals arrived in Switzerland from the United States for an assisted suicide between 2010 and 2012.

Related Links:

— “Seeking Death: ‘Suicide Tourism’ to Switzerland Doubles,” Maggie Fox, NBC News, August 20, 2014.

TIME (8/21, Sifferlin) reports that according to results of a 452-patient study published online Aug. 20 in JAMA Psychiatry, “a combination of antidepressants and therapy work to help severely depressed patients recover.”

Medscape (8/21, Cassels) reports that the study revealed that “patients with severe, nonchronic depression had better rates of recovery if they were treated with cognitive therapy (CT) combined with” antidepressants, compared with patients who received antidepressant medications alone. The investigators found, however, that “this treatment strategy had little, if any, benefit for patients with less severe or chronic major depression.”

Related Links:

— “Therapy and Antidepressants Work Better Together Than Just Pills Alone,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, August 20, 2014.

The Kaiser Health News (8/20, Gold) reports that the City of San Antonio, TX and surrounding Bexar County “have completely overhauled their mental health system into a program considered a model for the rest of” the US. Their “effort has focused on an idea called ‘smart justice’ – basically, diverting people with serious mental illness out of jail and into treatment instead.”

This effort “is possible because all the players in the system that deal with mental illness – the police, the county jail, mental health department, criminal courts, hospitals and homeless programs – pooled their resources to take better care of people with mental illness.”

Related Links:

— “San Antonio Police Have Radical Approach To Mental Illness: Treat It,” Jenny Gold, Kaiser Health News, August 19, 2014.

In her column in the Los Angeles Times (8/16), Sandy Banks wrote, “Mental illness can undermine logic and overwhelm good intentions.” She asserted that “the best way to honor” Robin Williams “may be to drag depression out of the closet and place it center stage.” She suggested that “instead of saying ‘Are you OK?’ to a friend who seems hopeless or depressed, we ought to ask directly, ‘Have you felt so bad you wanted to die?’”

Related Links:

— “Time to shine a light on suicide, and banish the shame,” Sandy Banks, Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2014.

USA Today (8/18, Healy) reports that according to research published online Aug. 18 in the journal Pediatrics, “more parents – especially upper-income ones – are reporting that their children have a physical, developmental or mental health disability.” An analysis revealed that “the number of non-institutionalized children age 17 and younger with disabilities rose 16% between 2001 and 2011, with nearly six million children (8% of the population) reported as having a disability.”

The AP (8/18) reports, “The increases may partly reflect more awareness and recognition that conditions, including autism, require a specific diagnosis to receive special services, the researchers say.”

Related Links:

— “Parent-reported cases of disability in children rise,” Michelle Healy, USA Today, August 18, 2014.

HealthDay (8/15, Preidt) reports that according to a study published online Aug. 14 in the American Journal of Public Health, “when large numbers of workers lose their jobs, suicide attempts increase among certain groups of teens.” After analyzing “the results of a survey of more than 403,000 American teens conducted from 1997 to 2009, along with nationwide data about layoffs,” researchers “found that when one percent of a state’s workers lost their jobs, suicide attempts and other suicide-related behaviors jumped two…to three percent among girls during the following year.”

Related Links:

— “Worker Layoffs Tied to Rise in Teen Suicides, Study Finds,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 14, 2014.