Does newspaper coverage of suicide promote copycat suicides? A recent retrospective study examined this question by comparing suicide clusters among teens to isolated suicides, and how local newspapers covered these events.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends mental health screening as a standard part of well-child physicals.

Aggressive behavior is a huge problem in child psychiatry. In fact, some estimates say as many as 80% of children and adolescents referred for psychiatric care have some type of aggression, including oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder.

Agitation is common in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and while antipsychotics are frequently given for agitation, they can also increase risk for cardiac and cerebrovascular events. What to do? A group of researchers recently investigated the possibility that an antidepressant, citalopram (Celexa), may be an alternative choice.

All antidepressants have the potential to cause physical adverse effects, such as dry mouth, drowsiness, and dizziness. But patients often report psychological and interpersonal effects, too, and the fear of these adverse reactions sometimes leads patients to refuse these drugs. How common are non-physical side effects, such as apathy and feelings of detachment?

More than 100,000 Americans undergo surgery each year, about a 10-fold increase compared to the 1990s (Nguyen NT et al, J Am Coll Surg 2011;213(2):261–266). Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) is the most common procedure performed. As surgical volumes increased, reports started to emerge about addiction following surgery.

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The teen years are known as a time of increased suicide risk. Associated factors such as depression, social support, and anxiety were recently studied to understand their relationship to ideation, planning, and suicide attempts. Researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined how social anxiety is related to risk of suicidal ideation.

A major obstacle in the prevention of depression is the lack of a predictive biomarker in individuals who later develop the disorder. British researchers have shown that the combination of a physiological biomarker—salivary cortisol—and the presence of depressive symptoms might be used to predict the development of major depression in adolescents.

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