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A study of nearly 10,000 adolescents funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has identified distinct differences in the brain structures of those who used substances before age 15 compared to those who did not. Many of these structural brain differences appeared to exist in childhood before any substance use, suggesting they may play a role in the risk of substance use initiation later in life, in tandem with genetic, environmental, and other neurological factors.

“This adds to some emerging evidence that an individual’s brain structure, alongside their unique genetics, environmental exposures, and interactions among these factors, may impact their level of risk and resilience for substance use and addiction,” said Nora Volkow, MD, director of NIDA. “Understanding the complex interplay between the factors that contribute and that protect against drug use is crucial for informing effective prevention interventions and providing support for those who may be most vulnerable.”

Among the 3,460 adolescents who initiated substances before age 15, most (90.2%) reported trying alcohol, with considerable overlap with nicotine and/or cannabis use; 61.5% and 52.4% of kids initiating nicotine and cannabis, respectively, also reported initiating alcohol. Substance initiation was associated with a variety of brain-wide (global) as well as more regional structural differences primarily involving the cortex, some of which were substance-specific. While these data could someday help inform clinical prevention strategies, the researchers emphasize that brain structure alone cannot predict substance use during adolescence and that these data should not be used as a diagnostic tool.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, (ABCD Study), the largest longitudinal study of brain development and health in children and adolescents in the United States, which is supported by the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and nine other institutes, centers, and offices.

Read more at BehavioralHealthNews.org.

Black Bostonians are much more likely to have health care providers try to involuntarily hospitalize them amid mental health emergencies, according to a new study out this month.

The process can be initiated by clinicians or police officers if they believe a person is a danger to themselves or others. That prompts an order for local EMS and Boston police to transport that individual to a local facility for an evaluation, which can lead to an involuntary commitment of up to three days.

More than 40% of the nearly 500 requests that health care workers made in a recent year were for Black patients, even though fewer than a quarter of all Bostonians are Black.

The study’s authors also found that, for every three in four cases, these requests for transport are made by health professionals who haven’t directly evaluated the person. Researchers and advocates say the study identifies discrepancies that should be addressed and underscores the need for more support before individuals reach a crisis.

Tens of thousands of these involuntary evaluations happen in Massachusetts every year. Advocates say this study provides rare insight into how these tools are applied by health care providers.

Earl Miller, who oversees two Wildflower Alliance respite centers in Holyoke and Springfield, worries about police involvement with mental health crises. After more than a decade with Wildflower Alliance, Miller says he’s never had to call the police for someone to be hospitalized or institutionalized.

Some advocates believe such institutionalizations should be seen as a violation of someone’s human rights. Miller himself was involuntarily hospitalized when he was younger, which inspired him to enter this line of work.

Read more at BayStateBanner.com

Suicide rates for young Americans are rising. With Latino youth among the most vulnerable, some researchers are calling for a culturally informed approach in therapies.

In ethnic communities family, culture and societal expectations significantly affect identity and mental health. Dr. Yovanska Duarté-Vélez, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University, developed the first culturally adapted treatment for suicidal Latino and Hispanic teens.

“Part of the development of adolescents, identity is essential component in which we take into consideration different aspects of the self, like their ethnicity, their cultural values, their beliefs and how they see themselves and see their families,” Duarté-Vélez said.

Imagine an onion, said the researcher, who has written extensively about ethnically diverse teens with suicidal thoughts and ways to tailor treatments to them. In the onion, “the youth is in the center and is surrounded by the family, the context, like the environment, and then the broader cultural values and system,” Duarté-Vélez said.

Duarté-Vélez’s Socio-Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Suicidal Behaviors (SCBT-SB) considers each layer of the onion. It builds off traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), focusing not only on coping with and changing negative thoughts and attitudes but also incorporating how family communication, social interactions, trauma, activities and substance use can influence those thoughts and behaviors.

During a recent trial of a small sample of 46 Hispanic/Latino youths and at least one of their caregivers, the results revealed the therapy was more effective in reducing suicide attempts and depressive symptoms when compared to regular therapies. “There may be other clinicians that … take into consideration cultural aspects – and that’s great – but … we need to make sure that the protocol we are testing is included in a standardized way,” Duarté-Vélez said.

Read more at CronkiteNews.AZPBS.org

The risk of committing suicide is lower for the overarching group labeled “Asian youth” compared to non-Asian peers (9.17 deaths per 100,000 compared to 10.77 per 100,000). But researchers at Seattle Children’s Research Institute’s Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development say lumping all Asian kids into a single group leads to missing the trees for the forest.

According to new institute research, Asian youth suicide rates differ among ethnic subgroups, including Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Japanese, and others. The new study, published in JAMA Pediatrics and led by Seattle Children’s Anthony L. Bui, MD, MPH, found, for example, that Indian and Chinese youths showed the lowest rate of suicide while Korean and Vietnamese teens showed higher rates.

Averaging data across all subgroups, says Bui, reduces the urgency around providing mental health research and services aimed at understanding and supporting Asian American youth.

Asian ethnic groups are some of the fastest-growing and diverse populations in the nation and state. Each one, Bui points out, has its own language, culture, and other social characteristics.

In Washington, Asian communities make up between 10% and 13% of the state’s population. According to the Washington State Commission Asian Pacific American Affairs, there are 48 district sub-ethnic cultures under the Asian American or Pacific Islander overall groupings.

“The stress from racism and anti-immigrant sentiment is likely a large cause of why there are higher rates of mental illness and suicide among Asian American youth,” Bui says.

This new research pushes against the singular “model minority” stereotype of Asians, especially for kids.

“That is a dangerous and harmful stereotype that continues to persist in our communities and likely has contributed to increased rates of mental illness and suicide among Asian American youth,” Bui says. “This stereotype generalizes Asians to be academically gifted, hardworking, and well-adjusted. The stereotype creates unfair and unrealistic societal pressures on Asian youth to achieve constantly, and it also results in poorer recognition of mental health conditions among Asian youth.”

Further, it places pressure on Asian youth to avoid seeking help for mental health struggles.

Read more at SeattlesChild.com

Nonprofit leaders, academics and people who have experienced homelessness gathered recently at Princeton University to urge the state to provide more immediate mental health services for children and adults living in shelters throughout New Jersey. The event came after two recent reports highlighting the need for more timely mental health services for these populations within the state’s shelter system.

Over 12,600 people in New Jersey were homeless on a single night in late January, according to NJ Counts 2024, the state’s annual point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness. On the night of the count, 9,525 homeless people stayed in emergency shelters, according to the report. The 2024 count also indicates a 24% increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness in the state compared to last year.

Both parents and shelter staff are frustrated with the barriers and lack of practical awareness of the “incredibly challenging” and complicated lives of homeless people within the current system, such as with transportation, which can make it difficult to attend off-site appointments, the report says. These barriers prevent many children from accessing the mental health care they need to deal with trauma and adverse childhood experiences associated with homelessness. The report by the New York-based Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness was developed at the request of the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness.

Advocates for homeless people, including Mary Gay Abbott-Young, say that having meetings between behavioral health providers and the “homeless emergency system” is one of the next steps in addressing these issues now that the reports are out.

Read more at NJSpotlightNews.org.

America’s military veterans make up about 6% of the adult population but account for about 20% of all suicides. That means that each day, about 18 veterans will die by suicide. In the U.S., the overall rate of suicide has largely increased since the start of the millennium, but veterans are disproportionately represented among this tragic trend. Each of these losses affects not only the individual but also their families, friends and co-workers. Thus, working to prevent suicide and its underlying causes is important not only to protect our loved ones but also to foster happier, safer communities.

Military veterans range from 18 years of age to more than 100, include both men and women, and represent diverse races and ethnicities. As of 2018, the largest veteran cohort were those who served during the Vietnam War, followed by those who served during peacetime only, the Gulf War and post-9/11 conflicts.

Identifying the true risk of veteran suicide, especially relative to the general population, is a surprisingly difficult task. In past decades, researchers and stakeholders debated about which figures were most accurate, those showing veterans at increased risk or those showing the opposite. Such debates often stemmed from methodological factors.

One reason is that, compared to nonveterans, a greater proportion of veterans are white, male and older – demographic categories with elevated rates of suicide in the general population. For example, in Arizona, about 97% of veteran suicides between 2015 and 2022 were men, compared with 75% in the comparable nonveteran population.

Other explanations relate to veteran-specific factors. Some argue that military training and combat exposure can reduce a person’s fear of pain or death, putting suicidal veterans at greater risk of completing suicide. Military training also familiarizes a person with the use of firearms, a particularly lethal means of suicide. Statistics show that veterans, including female veterans, die by suicide using firearms more so than the general population. This tendency to use firearms as the method of suicide leads to more fatal suicide attempts.

In 1999, then-Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher highlighted suicide as a serious public health crisis, paving the way for tackling the monumental issue on a national scale.

Now, 25 years later, the U.S. government continues to emphasize the increasingly dire situation. Most recently, the Biden administration released a 2024 national strategy aimed at establishing strategic directions for improving mental health treatment and reducing suicide.

Historically, health care facilities operated by the Veterans Health Administration have been a central resource for veterans experiencing mental or physical problems. This continues to be true: While the overall population of veterans is decreasing, the number of veterans who seek resources from the organization has increased. Encounters between veterans and the Veterans Health Administration offer opportunities to screen for suicide risk and offer resources for those in need.

Read more at TheConversation.com.