The ABC News (12/16, Moisse) “Medical Unit” blog reported, “If you’ve ever felt bullied at work, you’re not alone. A study” published online Dec. 12 in BMJ open “suggests workplace bullying is common, and so is the need for medical intervention.”

MedPage Today (12/15, Neale) reported, “Middle-age, municipal employees who said they were bullied were significantly more likely to be prescribed and reimbursed for at least one psychotropic medication in the next five years (HR 1.51 for women and 2.15 for men).” The study of “6,287 workers (80% female) between the ages of 40 and 60 [who] were not using psychotropic medications at baseline” also revealed that “frequently observing a fellow worker being bullied was similarly associated with subsequent psychotropic medication use for both women (HR 1.53) and men (HR 1.92), the researchers reported.”

Related Links:

— “Workplace Bullying Tied to Psychiatric Tx, “Todd Neale, MedPage Today, December 14, 2012.

USA Today (12/17, Szabo) reports, “Families and doctors who treat the mentally ill say they hope that Friday’s tragedy in Newtown, Conn., will refocus the nation’s attention on improving mental health services.” While “police have not yet released details about the motives or mental state of shooter Adam Lanza,” the “perpetrators of similar mass murders — at Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University and a Tucson gathering for Rep. Gabby Giffords, for example — all suffered from serious mental health conditions.” Forensic psychologist Dew Cornell, who directs the Virginia Youth Violence Project, pointed out that “schools and communities ‘have cut their mental health services to the bone.'” He added, “We’re paying a price for it as a society.”

The Arizona Republic (12/16, Sexton) reported that “mental health experts in Arizona said discussion of Lanza’s mental state is an opportunity to talk about the need for better mental health preventive services.” Jim Frost, president of National Alliance on Mental Illness for Arizona, said that “it is no surprise that mass shootings in the past two years involved young adult men.” He explained, “There is a life trigger at age 18 for some people who have trouble coping, he said. For some men, it becomes an act of aggression, an act of violence.”

Better Mental Healthcare Alone May Not Prevent Mass Killings. The Buffalo (NY) News (12/15, Zremski) pointed out that “better mental health services alone are not the [preventive] medicine for mass shootings like the one that claimed the lives of 20 school children and eight adults, including the killer, in Connecticut on Friday.” According to psychiatrists, “it’s nearly impossible to identify who among the mentally ill is truly dangerous, and that any effort to do so will only further stigmatize a category of illness where many people already shun treatment out of embarrassment and fear.” Finally, “the vast majority of mentally ill people are not prone to violence.”

Article Provides Tips On How To Discuss Newtown Shootings With Kids. HealthDay (12/15, Gardner) provided tips for parents on how to discuss the Newtown shootings with their children. Experts say youngsters “need to be able to express their feelings about what happened.” Parents “should try to inform children without overwhelming them.” Grown-ups “can also offer ‘gentle words, a hug when appropriate or sometimes just being present with [kids] and not leaving them alone,’ said” Victor Fornari, MD, “director of child/adolescent psychiatry at North Shore-LIJ Health System in New Hyde Park, NY.”

Related Links:

— “Newtown tragedy could put mental health in spotlight, “Liz Szabo, USA Today, December 17, 2012.

MedPage Today (12/14, Pittman) reports, “Most seniors said they would talk about their depression with their primary care physician, but few said [physicians] think to ask,” according to a recent survey of some 1,300 US seniors called “The Unfinished Business of Mental Health Care for Older Adults.” The survey, which was released yesterday, found that “three-quarters of respondents 65 and older (77%) said they would mention that they were feeling depressed or anxious to their doctor even if they weren’t asked,” but “only one in four said their doctor asked how they were feeling. And, 23% of those older adults who had received some form of treatment said they wished their doctor would do more to make sure the treatment was working.”

Related Links:

— “PCPs Should Treat Depression, Seniors Say, “David Pittman, Medpage Today, December 13, 2012.

HealthDay (12/14, Gray) reports, “As the US Supreme Court prepares to enter the debate about gay marriage, a new study” published online Dec. 13 in the American Journal of Public Health “suggests that being in a legally recognized relationship of any kind may reduce feelings of nervousness, hopelessness and depression.” After analyzing data on some 47,000 adults, “researchers found that psychological distress was lower among people in a legally recognized relationship, whether gay or straight. Those in same-sex relationships that were legally recognized — either as marriage or as a registered domestic partnership — also revealed less psychological distress.”

Related Links:

— “Legal Unions, Including Marriage, Boost Mental Health for Gay People: Study, “Barbara Bronson Gray, HealthDay, December 13, 2012.

HealthDay (12/14, Gray) reports that a study published online Dec. 13 in the journal Stroke “found that people over 65 with the highest levels of psychosocial distress — including depression, a negative outlook and dissatisfaction with life — had triple the risk of death from stroke as compared with those who had lower levels of stress.”

WebMD (12/14, Goodman) reports that for the study, Susan A. Everson-Rose, PhD, MPH, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and colleagues “surveyed more than 4,000 adults over age 65 in the three neighborhoods in Chicago. The majority of people who took part were women and African-American. Their average age was 77.”

Many Cardiac Arrest Survivors May Also Suffer From Psychological Distress. Reuters (12/14, Stokes) reports that according to a review published online Dec. 3 in the journal Resuscitation, approximately 25% of patients who survive an episode of cardiac arrest may end up with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or anxiety over the long term. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after analyzing data from 11 studies. The review’s authors pointed out the importance of identifying such issues to help treat these mental-health disorders. Reuters also notes that only one out of 10 people who experience cardiac arrest survive. For that reason, the long-term psychological needs of survivors may have been overlooked.

Related Links:

— “Stress, Depression Linked to Raised Stroke Risk in Seniors, “Barbara Bronson Gray, HealthDay, December 13, 2012.

The Toronto (CAN) Star (12/12, Hall) reports on a study published in the December issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry that examines the differences in how a tobacco-cessation medication, naltrexone, affects men and women. According to the article, “the study of 700 smokers — all of them using tobacco patches — showed those men using” the medication “increased their chances of quitting from 17 to 30 per cent after a 12-week trial.” However, for women, “the increase in quit rates were negligible.”

Related Links:

— “Anti-smoking drug Naltrexone has his and hers effects, “Joseph Hall, The Toronto Star, December 11, 2012.

Medscape (12/12) reports, “There is fair evidence to support the effectiveness of psychological therapies for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents,” according to a review published online Dec. 12 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. After analyzing data from 14 studies encompassing 758 patients, researchers found that “children and teens diagnosed with PTSD showed signs of improvement up to three months following psychological therapy, and they called for more studies to assess its long-term benefits.”

In its “Well” blog and in print, the New York Times (12/11, D6, Bakalar) reports that “an economist has published an unusual study in the December issue of PLoS One,” which found that “about half of the population has a variation in a specific gene connected to nicotine addiction that makes them more likely to respond to cigarette tax increases.” After looking at data on 6,178 adults in a national health survey, Jason M. Fletcher, an associate professor of health policy at Yale, found that “about half of the subjects had a variation in a gene for a nicotine receptor in the brain that is thought to control the pleasure reward of nicotine consumption.” The article details that Fletcher “found that a 100 percent increase in taxes had a significant effect only on people with this particular genetic variation in DNA sequence,” and the “other half of the population was immune to the effect of taxation.”

Related Links:

— “Efficacy of Tobacco Taxes Tied to Gene Type, “Nicholas Bakalar, The New York Times, December 10, 2012.

Reuters (12/11, Pittman) reports that, according to research published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, youths who engage in binge eating may be more likely to begin using drugs, and may also be more likely to become depressed.

Bloomberg News (12/11, Ostrow) reports, “The study focused on 16,882 boys and girls ages 9 to 15 in 1996.” Participants “were given questionnaires every 12 to 24 months from 1996 to 2005 to assess their eating.” Investigators found that “teens and young adults who reported being binge-eaters or overeaters were almost twice as likely to start using marijuana than those without the eating disorder.
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MedPage Today (12/11, Petrochko) reports, “Perhaps not surprisingly, children and teens who binged on food — but not those who merely overate — were also more likely to become overweight or obese (aOR 1.73, 95% CI 1.11 to 2.69) and were at twice the risk of becoming depressed (aOR 2.19, 95% CI 1.40 to 3.45).”

Related Links:

— “Youth who overeat more likely to take up drugs, “Genevra Pittman, Reuters, December 10, 2012.

USA Today (12/10, Healy) reports, “Victims of teen dating violence are at increased risk of mood and behavior problems as young adults, and at increased risk for future violent relationships,” according to a study published online Dec. 10 in Pediatrics. “Researchers who analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of 5,681 teens ages 12 to 18 found roughly 30% of both boys and girls said they had been the victim in an aggressive heterosexual dating relationship. This adds to a body of research suggesting that teen dating violence ‘is a substantial public health problem.'”

Related Links:

— “Teen dating violence affects well-being in adulthood,”Michelle Healy, HealthDay, December 10, 2012.