The Wall Street Journal (12/28, A6, Hagerty, Subscription Publication) reports that starting New Year’s Day, many smokers will find that new bans at companies and governments will go into effect. Employees of 3M and Delaware’s state government will no longer be allowed to smoke. A law approved in North Dakota would also ban smoking in bars and motels, as well as within 20 feet of doors near public buildings. Similar secondhand smoke laws are also being explored nationwide, such as in Bangor, Maine and San Francisco.

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— “Curbs on Smokers Continue to Grow,”James Hagerty, The Wall Street Journal, December 27, 2012.

In a story titled “Pain Pills’ Littlest Victims,” the Wall Street Journal (12/28, A3, Campo-Flores, Subscription Publication) reports how US hospitals, particularly those in Florida and Kentucky, are struggling to cope with infants born with an addiction to opioid-based prescription painkillers or anti-addiction medications. These babies must be hospitalized in the NICU because of powerful, long-lasting withdrawal symptoms. Adding to the difficulty of the situation is that there is no specific medical protocol for weaning these babies from such medicines, and hospitals are learning as they go. What’s more, nobody knows what the long-term effects will be on the babies.

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— “Pain Pills’ Littlest Victims,”Arian Campo Flores, The Wall Street Journal, December 28, 2012.

The Tennessean (12/27, Ammenheuser) reports, “The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 25 percent of college students have eating disorders. The same percent of college women report managing weight by binging and purging, says the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.” While the “problem’s more widespread among women,” about “10 percent to 15 percent of anorexics and bulimics are male,” the association explained.

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— “Eating disorders boom as kids enter college,”Maura Ammenheuser, The Tennessean, December 27, 2012.

On the front of its Business Day section, the New York Times (12/22, Lieber, B1, Subscription Publication) reported , “Insurance covers more mental health care than many people may realize, and more people will soon have the kind of health insurance that does so.” However, “coverage goes only so far when there aren’t enough practitioners who accept it – or there aren’t any nearby, or they aren’t taking any new patients.” This may pose a particular “challenge for people who live far from major cities or big medical centers and need treatment for mental illnesses like severe depression or schizophrenia or disorders like autism.”

Related Links:

— “Walking the Tightrope on Mental Health Coverage, “Ron Leiber, The New York Times, December 21, 2012.

The Denver Post (12/23, O’Connor) reported that a report published last February in the journal Emergency Physicians Monthly found a 60% decrease in the number of psychiatric beds available for inpatients in the US between the years 1970 and 2002. Bed counts at hospitals run by counties and states plummeted by 90%, the article said. A 2008 study [pdf] conducted by the American College of Emergency Physicians revealed that Colorado has only 11.8 inpatient psychiatric beds per 100,000 persons, which appears to be one of the worst rates in the US.

Related Links:

— “Parents’ burden: Lack of resources adds to challenges of caring for the mentally ill, “Colleen O’Connor, The Denver Post, December 23, 2012.

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (12/26, A11, Subscription Publication), Peter M. Marzuk, MD, of the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, asserts that while the vast majority of people with mental illnesses are not violent and do not commit suicide or murder, nearly all people who do commit murder-suicides have underlying serious mental illness. He calls for systematic studies of the brains of those who perpetrate murder-suicides in order to better understand any underlying neurobiology that could be targeted for specific medicines or therapies. He would also like to see a US-wide registry of information on murder-suicides.

Related Links:

— “Unlocking the Mystery of Murder-Suicide, “Peter M. Marzuk, The Wall Street Journal, December 25, 2012.

The Hill (12/21, Viebeck) “Healthwatch” blog reported, “The governing body of the US Catholic Church is calling for lawmakers to tighten gun regulations and improve access to mental healthcare in the wake of” the “mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.” On Friday, “the US Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement” that also “called for greater sensitivity toward people with mental illnesses and their families.”

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— “Catholic bishops call for gun control, mental health reforms, “Elise Viebeck, The Hill, December 21, 2012.

The Time (12/26, Rochman) “Healthland” blog reports, “Nearly half of kids with food allergies say they’ve been bullied, and a third report that the bullying was food-related.” Lead author Dr. Eyal Shemesh, associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center, and colleagues “looked at 251 children ages 8 to 17 who came to Mount Sinai’s allergy clinic with a parent. Both children and parents answered detailed questions about bullying.”

The Huffington Post (12/24, Pearson) reports, “Overall, 45 percent of the children and teens – who were between the ages of 8 and 17 – said they’d been bullied, and 31.5 percent said it was because of their food allergy.” The researchers found that “the bullying was most likely to happen while they were in school and included others teasing them, waving food in their face, throwing food at them, or forcing them to touch the food that triggers their allergies.”

Related Links:

— “Bullying over Food Allergies,”Bonnie Rochman, TIME, December 25, 2012.