HealthDay (12/8, Preidt) reported, “Children with autism are nine times more likely than other children to be taken to the emergency department for mental health problems, according to a” study recently published in the journal Pediatric Emergency Care. After analyzing “data on nearly four million emergency department visits made by US children aged three to 17 in 2008,” researchers found that “thirteen percent of the visits by kids with autism were psychiatric in nature, compared to two percent of all visits made by their peers.”

Related Links:

— “Kids With Autism Common Users of ERs, Study Says, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay,December 7, 2012.

USA Today (12/8, Lopez) reported, “As more kids are diagnosed with bipolar disorder [BD] at earlier ages, parents wonder whether psychiatric drugs such as Depakote [valproic acid, divalproex] and lithium are really the answer — and how they might affect their child’s growth and development.” Just “last week after 10 years of debate, psychiatrists approved updates to their diagnostic manual of mental illnesses, including the addition of Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder, describing children who have outbursts three or more times a week. The new term aims to address concerns about overdiagnosis and overmedication of bipolar disorder in children, and gives psychiatrists a way to differentiate between bipolar and other explosive outbursts.”

Related Links:

— “Parents struggle with decision to medicate bipolar kids, “Korina Lopez, USA Today, December 8, 2012.

The New York Times (12/7, A17, Dao, Subscription Publication) reports that today, “the Department of Veterans Affairs will propose new regulations…that will make it easier for thousands of veterans to receive health care and compensation for certain illnesses that have been linked to traumatic brain injury [TBI].” The proposed “regulations, which will be published on Monday in the Federal Register, list Parkinsonism, unprovoked seizures, certain dementias, depression and hormone deficiency diseases related to the hypothalamus, pituitary or adrenal glands as eligible for the expanded benefits.” The Times points out, “The proposal, which must undergo a 60-day public comment period, could open the door to tens of thousands of veterans filing claims with the Veterans Benefits Administration, which is already struggling to process a huge inventory of such claims.”

Related Links:

— “Rules Eased for Veterans’ Brain Injury Benefits, “James Dao, The New York Times, December 7, 2012.

The Philadelphia Inquirer (12/6, Brubaker) reports, “Lourdes Health System is opening a 21-bed unit to treat active-duty military women with post-traumatic stress disorder and other behavioral illnesses.” According to Lourdes officials, the facility “is scheduled to open this month at Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro and will be only the fifth such center in the country and the only one on the East Coast.” The piece cites US Department of Veteran Affairs data, which said that “women, who make up about 15 percent of the armed forces, are more likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder than men, in part because they are more likely to be sexually assaulted.”

Related Links:

— “New health center for military women, “Harold Brubaker, The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 6, 2012.

USA Today (12/6, Payne) reports, “The months of November, December and January actually have the lowest number of suicides per day, according to the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, which analyzed 1999-2010 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It found that averages were highest in the spring and summer.”

Related Links:

— “Holiday suicide myth persists, research says, “Cathy Payne, USA Today, December 5, 2012.

Bloomberg News (12/6, Homan) reports, “The US House voted to remove the term ‘lunatic’ from sections of federal law, while the word ‘idiot’ would remain.” The measure, “which passed 398-1, would amend a section of the US Code that defines the meanings of certain words used in acts of Congress. Making the change would eliminate ‘references that contribute to the stigmatization of mental health conditions,’ according to an April 25 statement by the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota.” The bill has the backing of the American Psychiatric Association, among others.

The AP (12/6) reports, “The congressional action is the latest effort to remove language from the US code that has become outdated or demeaning. Two years ago Congress took out references in federal law to the term ‘mental retardation.'”

Related Links:

— “Congress Erases ‘Lunatic,’ Keeps ’Idiot’ in Federal Law, “Timothy R. Homan, Bloomberg, December 5, 2012.

USA Today (12/3, Leger) reports, “K2, Spice and other synthetic drugs that mimic a marijuana high sent 11,406 people…to the emergency room in 2010.” In fact, “in 59% of the cases involving patients ages 12 to 29, doctors found no other substance,” besides synthetic marijuana in the patients, which differs from most other drug-related hospital visits. According to USA Today, “At least 18 states outlawed the substances and the Drug Enforcement Administration instituted an emergency ban. In July, Congress banned sales of K2, Spice and other synthetic drugs under the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act.”

The Hill (12/5, Viebeck) reports in its “Healthwatch” blog that, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “Synthetic marijuana can cause vomiting, seizures, hallucinations and paranoid behavior on a level that lands people in the hospital.” The Hill adds, “Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who is behind a law that bans the drug’s chemical ingredients, hailed the study” detailing the dangers of synthetic marijuana. The story was also covered by HealthDay (12/5, Mozes) and by CBS News (12/5, Castillo).

Related Links:

— “Report: Synthetic pot sends thousands to hospital, “Donna Leinwand Leger, USA Today, December 4, 2012.

On its website, Salon (12/5, Lennard) reports that Yale University, using national administrative data from the Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, discovered that the majority of homeless Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who reported combat exposure, have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and “do not receive any” Veterans Affairs-service connected disability. Yale’s study, according to Salon, “assessed nearly 100 Iraq and Afghanistan vets.”

Related Links:

— “Majority of homeless Iraq and Afghanistan vets have PTSD, “Natasha Lennard, Salon, December 4, 2012.

Reuters (12/5, Seaman) reports that according to a study published online Dec. 3 in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one in five adolescents whose parent has died of cancer may self-harm either by burning or cutting themselves. In contrast, only one in 10 adolescents with both parents living will engage in such behavior.

MedPage Today (12/5, Bankhead) reports that the study “authors identified several factors that had statistically significant associations with self-injury in both groups: female sex — OR 3.2; bullying before age 13 — OR 2.8; physical/sexual abuse — OR 6.5; low family cohesion — OR 3.2; no one to share joys/sorrows — OR 1.8; any childhood psychiatric morbidity — OR 9.0; deliberately harming others during a menstrual period — OR 2.9; attempted suicide/endangering own life — OR 6.0; [and] self-injury prior to 2000 — OR 11.7.” Researchers arrived at these conclusions after reviewing “government records of individuals born in Sweden from 1936 to 1973 and who died of cancer during 2000 through 2003.”

Related Links:

— “After parent’s cancer death, one in five kids self-injure, ” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, December 5, 2012.

The Boston Globe (12/4) reports, “Since 2002, the government’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has funded about $57.7 million in scientific research into meditation, according to statistics provided by the office,” and “last April, the International Symposia for Contemplative Studies, a first-ever conference of researchers, scholars, and students in the field, drew 720 participants from all over the world.” While earlier research “focused on the health benefits of stress reduction from meditation,” recently “neuroscientists…have begun using magnetic resonance imaging to show that meditation can make actual structural changes in the brain.” For example, one imaging study conducted in 2005 found that people who meditate had more gray matter in areas of the brain involved in sensory processing and attention. A 2012 study found that meditation increases gyrification in the brain.

Related Links:

— “The effectiveness in meditation to treat an array of illnesses has led to studies of how meditation can change the brain, “Jan Brogan, Boston.com, November 25, 2012.