Reuters (12/11, Bond) reports on a study appearing in Child Abuse & Neglect finding that “threatening or screaming at teenagers may put them at higher risk for depression and disruptive behaviors such as rule-breaking.” The study found that “mothers had to be both verbally and physically abusive to increase the kids’ risk for depression and behavior issues,” though fathers had to adopt only one of those behaviors “to produce lasting ill effects.” The study covered 239 “troubled adolescents” who completed surveys, along with parents who also completed surveys on their behavior. The authors concluded that physicians should ask adolescent patients about verbal as well as physical abuse.

Related Links:

— “Yelling, threatening parents harm teens’ mental health, “Allison Bond, Reuters, December 10, 2013.

Several high profile media outlets, including a network news broadcast and the websites for multiple national newspapers, cover Vice President Joe Biden’s announcement on the first anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings that the Federal government will provide an additional $100 million for mental health services. The funding comes from the Affordable Care Act and the Department of Agriculture.

NBC Nightly News reported that with Saturday marking the one-year anniversary of the Newtown school shooting, Vice President Biden met with families “who have been pleading” for more focus on the link between violence and mental illness. NBC added that Biden announced $100 million “to help community health centers across the country to establish and expand behavioral health services and to improve mental health access in rural areas.”

USA Today (12/10, Jayson) reports that, according to a study published online Dec. 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “six or more hours a day of exposure to media coverage” following “a traumatic event may” be harmful to mental health. Researchers found that prolonged media exposure following the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings was tied to “more acute stress than having been at or near the marathon.”

The Los Angeles Times (12/10, Healy) reports that researchers arrived at that conclusion after questioning some 4,675 Americans in the period two to four weeks after the bombings. People who took the Internet-based survey “were a representative sample of metropolitan Boston, New York City and the rest of the United States.” After adjusting for confounding factors, investigators “found that respondents with a prior history of mental health problems and those who had watched six or more hours of daily media coverage of the events surrounding the bombings were most likely to report high acute-stress symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “Acute stress trauma can result from exposure via media, “Sharon Jayson, USA Today, December 09, 2013.

Andrew Solomon, the author of “Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity,” wrote in a New York Times (12/8, Subscription Publication) op-ed that because of a section of US immigration law, some people – including a Canadian woman trying to take a cruise – have been prevented from entering the US because of their history of getting treatment for mental illness. Solomon finds this “regressive” and he says such border snares could keep people from getting appropriate mental healthcare. People with treatment pose fewer threats, he writes, urging President Obama “to speak out against” Section 212 of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act “to put to rest the idea that people with mental health conditions who pose no danger are unwelcome in our country.”

Related Links:

— “Shameful Profiling of the Mentally Ill, “Andrew Solomon, The New York Times, December 13, 2013.

For the October 2013 World Mental Health Day, the World Health Organization released a video created in collaboration with writer and illustrator Matthew Johnstone. The video visualizes depression as a big black dog and goes through the trials overcoming it. You can view the video on Youtube here:

From the video description:

“At its worst, depression can be a frightening, debilitating condition. Millions of people around the world live with depression. Many of these individuals and their families are afraid to talk about their struggles, and don’t know where to turn for help. However, depression is largely preventable and treatable. Recognizing depression and seeking help is the first and most critical towards recovery.”

Further information and news about World Mental Health Day can be found here: http://www.who.int/mental_health/world-mental-health-day/en/