From the Editor
This week, the three selections look at the intersection of mental health and public policy.
With daylight saving time ending, many North Americans set their clocks back an hour this past Sunday morning, seemingly gaining an extra hour. But several jurisdictions have ended “spring forward, fall back,” instead choosing permanent daylight saving time. What are the effects on mental and physical health? In the first selection, Dr. Raymond W. Lam (of the University of British Columbia) and his co-authors attempt to answer that question with an impressive CMAJ paper with 42 references and two tables. “Ending biannual clock adjustments may eliminate transition harms that last a few weeks, but the health effects of permanent time are likely to be chronic.”
In the second selection, a research letter published in JAMA, Dr. Lyna Z. Schieber (of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and her co-authors analyzed US pharmacy data to better understand opioid dispensing in recent years. They report some good news, in part because of federal and state legislative changes: “Opioid dispensing continued to decline through 2025, extending more than a decade-long downward trend in the United States since its peak in 2012.”
Finally, in the third selection, German Lopez writes about suicides in Wyoming in the New York Times. His excellent essay describes a state facing a major problem: its suicide rate is double the US national average. He writes about the different people he has met, noting a general reluctance to talk about mental health. He also describes legislative reforms that would help. “If the state wants to lose its status as one of the worst for suicides, something has to change.”
DG
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