THURSDAY, Feb. 22, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly one in five who attempt suicide do so without meeting criteria for an antecedent psychiatric disorder, according to a study published online Feb. 21 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Maria A. Oquendo, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues used data from 1,948 U.S. adults with lifetime suicide attempts from a nationally representative population-based survey to determine what percentage of people who attempt suicide meet criteria for a psychiatric disorder.

The researchers found that 6.2 percent had no apparent lifetime psychiatric diagnoses when surveyed, while 13.4 percent made their first suicide attempt prior to psychiatric disorder onset. There were no significant age or sex differences noted in the percentage of those with lifetime suicide attempts absent psychiatric disorders. However, women were more likely than men to attempt suicide in the year of psychiatric disorder onset (14.9 versus 8.6 percent). Attempts were less frequent among those ≥50 to 65 years (3.9 percent versus 6.1 percent for those aged 35 to 50 years and 6.2 percent for those aged 20 to <35 years).

"This finding challenges clinical notions of who is at risk for suicidal behavior and raises questions about the safety of limiting suicide risk screening to psychiatric populations," the authors write.

One author disclosed financial ties to MindMed, Sage Therapeutics, and Alkermes.

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TUESDAY, Feb. 20, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- For children with concussion, higher cumulative moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (cMVPA) during the first and second weeks postinjury is associated with lower symptom burden, according to a study published online Feb. 16 in JAMA Network Open.

Andrée-Anne Ledoux, Ph.D., from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa, Canada, and colleagues conducted a multicenter cohort study using data from a randomized clinical trial conducted from March 2017 to December 2019 at three Canadian pediatric emergency departments. The association between cMVPA over two weeks and subsequent symptom burden, measured using the Health and Behavior Inventory (HBI), was examined among 267 children.

The researchers found that participants with greater cMVPA had significantly lower HBI scores at one week and two weeks postinjury (75th versus 25th percentile difference [258.5 versus 90.0 and 565.0 versus 237.0 minutes], −5.45 and −2.85, respectively), but not at four weeks postinjury. At one and two weeks postinjury, symptom burden was not lower beyond the 75th percentile for cMVPA. The odds ratio was 0.48 for the association between the 75th and 25th percentile of cMVPA and persisting symptoms after concussion at two weeks.

"Among children and adolescents with acute concussions, engaging in higher volumes of MVPA within the first week postinjury (259 versus 90 minutes) or within the first two weeks postinjury (565 versus 237 minutes) was associated with lower symptom burden," the authors write.

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FRIDAY, Feb. 16, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- The addition of electronic cigarettes to standard smoking-cessation counseling results in greater abstinence from tobacco use among smokers than smoking-cessation counseling alone, according to a study published in the Feb. 15 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Reto Auer, M.D., from Bern University Hospital in Switzerland, and colleagues randomly assigned adults who were smoking at least five tobacco cigarettes per day and who wanted to set a quit date to an intervention group (622 participants; free e-cigarettes and e-liquids, standard-of-care smoking-cessation counseling, and optional [not free] nicotine-replacement therapy) or to a control group (624 participants), who received standard counseling and a voucher.

The researchers found that 28.9 percent of participants in the intervention group had validated continuous abstinence from tobacco smoking versus 16.3 percent in the control group (relative risk, 1.77). In the intervention group, 59.6 percent of participants abstained from smoking in the seven days before the six-month visit versus 38.5 percent in the control group. Compared with the control group, fewer in the intervention group abstained from any nicotine (33.7 versus 20.1 percent). Adverse events occurred in 43.7 percent of the intervention group and 36.7 percent in the control group, while 4.0 and 5.0 percent, respectively, had serious adverse events.

"Electronic nicotine-delivery systems plus standard counseling may be a viable option for tobacco smokers who want to abstain from smoking without necessarily abstaining from nicotine but may be less appropriate for those who want to abstain from both tobacco and nicotine," the authors write.

Two authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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