Tag Archives: gun safety

Study May Indicate Biologic Basis for Brain Fog in Persons with Celiac Disease

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From The Onion: Dumbass Dog Wearing Face Mask All Wrong

From The Onion

A recent study (ID Croall, et al. Gastroenterol 2020; 158: 2112-22), using a UK Biobank with 500,000 adults, compared 104 participants with celiac disease to 198 healthy age-matched controls (mean age 63 years).

The authors examined cognitive outcomes, mental health outcomes and imaging data (MRI, diffusion tensor imaging).

Key findings: 

  • The celiac cohort had significant deficits in reaction time (P=.004), anxiety (P=.025), depression (P=.015), thoughts of self-harm (P=.025), and health-related unhappiness (P=.01)
  • Imaging studies showed white matter changes “which match up well anatomically with the regions affected in the celiac-related neurologic syndrome gluten ataxia.”

Limitations: study lacked data on celiac treatment status –whether better control or earlier diagnosis/treatment would reduce CNS complications is uncertain.  Also, whether these findings are more or less prevalent in individuals with undiagnosed celiac disease is unclear.

My take: This study provides further evidence that celiac disease results in significant neurologic problems and further reasons for those with celiac disease to adhere to a strict gluten-free diet (as other studies of neurologic outcomes indicate that a GFD can improve/reverse neurologic morbidities).

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Gun Carrying Adolescents –Why We Are Going to See More School Shootings

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A recent cross-sectional study (RMC Kagawa et al. J Pediatr 2019; 209: 198-203) shows a high rate of gun carrying among adolescents in the U.S.

Key findings:

  • Based on a sample of 10,112 adolescent who completed surveys, 2.4% of adolescents reported carrying a gun in the prior 30 days.
  • Carrying a gun was more common among adolescents with a conduct disorder (adjusted prevalence ratio 1.88), drug use disorders (APR 1.91) and patients with specific phobias (APR 1.54)
  • The authors estimate that 1.1% of adolescents with a disorder associated with self- or other-directed violence also carry guns.  This extrapolates to 272,000 adolescents with both risk factors.
  • Nearly two-thirds of adolescents who report gun carrying had a mental health disorder

My take:

  1. Guns are everywhere.  Gun carrying among adolescents, while only a small percentage of all adolescents, represent a grave risk; especially, since the majority who report carrying guns (in this study) have mental health issues.
  2. Safe storage needs to be a requirement of gun ownership.  Gun access and misuse by adolescents is a ‘clear and present danger’ (apologies to Tom Clancy).

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El Retiro Park, Madrid

Do Gun Law Restrictions Work?

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Those opposed to gun safety provisions (a.k.a. gun control legislation) argue that laws  will not prevent criminals from obtaining firearms illegally.  A recent commentary in NY Times provides some data that shows that states with more gun safety provisions have lower levels of gun-related deaths (especially suicides).

NY Times: A Gun Killed My Son. So Why Do I Want to Own One?

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March for Our Lives

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Today there is a “March for Our Lives”

Some relevant tweets:

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Update: Florida Physician Gag Rule Overturned

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In a previous blog post, Politics and Limiting Physician Speech, I discussed the Florida Gag Rule intended to prevent physicians from discussing firearm safety with patients. At the time, I expressed outrage that “there are laws curtailing a physician’s free speech and efforts to dictate practice based on political philosophy.”

It looks my views have been vindicated.  NEJM report (full text): Physicians, Firearms, and Free Speech

An excerpt:

In February, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued its long-awaited ruling in Wollschlaeger v. Governor, State of Florida, invalidating parts of Florida’s Firearm Owners’ Privacy Act (FOPA) and affirming that the First Amendment applies to the speech between physicians and patients. The decision ensures that physicians may continue to make efforts to protect their patients from gun-related injuries, many of which are fatal and which in aggregate account for approximately as many deaths annually as do motor vehicle accidents….

the majority affirmed that laws regulating physician speech must be designed to enhance rather than harm patient safety. The majority took this mandate seriously and required the state to show some meaningful evidence that the regulation was apt to serve the state’s interest in protecting patients.

The state could not do so for two reasons. First, the decision to keep a gun in the home substantially increases the risk of death for all household members, especially the risk of death by suicide, and particularly so when guns are stored loaded and unlocked, as they are in millions of homes where children live.3 Second, the majority of U.S. adults who live in homes with guns are unaware of the heightened risk posed by bringing guns into a home.4 Indeed, by providing accurate information about the risks created by easy access to firearms, as well as ways to modify that risk (e.g., by storing guns unloaded and locked up, separate from ammunition), a physician’s counseling can not only enhance a patient’s capacity for self-determination, but also save lives…

The fact is that most clinicians, including those who routinely encounter suicidal patients, rarely, if ever, provide firearm-safety counseling.5 This reticence predated the FOPA and has persisted since its passage..The court has done its duty. It’s now the physicians’ turn.

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Capers Island

Is It OK for Pediatricians to try to Prevent Firearm Injuries? Focus on Child Safety –Not on Gun Safety

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A recent study (JM Garbutt et al. J Pediatr 2016; 179: 166-71 and related editorial by MD Dowd, pg 15-17) provide relevant information on the issue of firearm injury prevention.

The study describes the results of a survey provided to 1246 parents at a diverse group of practices around St Louis.

Key findings:

  • 36% reported being owners of firearms
  • Of the owners, 25% reported ≥1 firearm was stored loaded and 17.9% carried a firearm when leaving the house.
  • 75% of all parents thought pediatricians should provide advise on safe storage of firearms (71% of owners); however, only 12.8% of all parents reported a discussion about firearms with the pediatrician

The discussion and commentary on this study are more interesting than the actual results. Key points:

  • The AAP has recommended that pediatricians screen for the presence of household firearms and has stated that a “home without guns is the safest option…Advising safe storage is also encouraged.”  Prior surveys have echoed this study that few pediatricians counsel families about firearm safety.
  • Despite AAP recommendations, over “60% of Americans believe that a ‘gun in the house makes it safer’ which is a more common attitude than in 2004 when 42% of Americans held that view.
  • Providing a child with firearm avoidance educational programs (eg. NRA’s “Eddie Eagle”) “is unlikely to lead to safe behaviors…[and] may give parents a false sense of security.”
  • “Children cannot distinguish real guns from toy guns and are strong enough to pull a trigger as early as 3 years of age.”
  • Approaching the topic of safe storage “as an expert in child development” and children’s unpredictable behavior rather than in firearm safety “may be acceptable to both pediatricians and parents.”
  • The authors advocate keeping firearm storage on a checklist of hazards (eg. medication storage, avoiding household poisons) –though this has not been well-studied.
  • From editorial: “When compared with other developed nations, US children under 15 years of age are 12 times more likely to be killed by a gun…We know that nearly 1 in 10 families with guns admit to keeping at least 1 gun loaded and unlocked, and nearly one-half keep at least 1 gun unlocked.”

So, in fact, having a gun in the home does not make a home safer, just the opposite.  But delving into this topic is probably not productive due to strong feelings tangential to gun ownership.  There have been unsuccessful legislative efforts in over 10 states to prevent physicians from discussing the topic as well as a protracted legal battle in Florida.

My take (borrowed from editorial): “Although the difference between “gun safety” and “child safety” may seem subtle, such a shift allows a consistent approach to home injury prevention across mechanisms of injury with the focus on the child, not the gun.” “Little children are curious and big children (teens) are impulsive, so exposure to unsecured guns can lead to tragic outcomes that cannot be prevented by child education.  Who better to deliver this message than pediatricians?”

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