In “The Blog” for the Huffington Post (5/14, Cooper, Ma, Mft, Cch, Ceds), therapist Rebecca Cooper, MA, MFT, CCH, CEDS writes, “The American Psychiatric Association only recently recognized binge eating disorder as a diagnosable disorder.” The APA “defines binge eating disorder as ‘recurring episodes of eating significantly more food in a short period of time than most people would eat under similar circumstances, with episodes marked by feelings of lack of control.’” The individual who binge eats “may have feelings of guilt, embarrassment or disgust and may binge eat alone to hide the behavior.”

Related Links:

— “The Truth About Binge Eating,” Rebecca Cooper, Huffington Post, May 13, 2014.

TIME (5/14, Kedmey) reports that a study published online May 13 in the journal Tobacco Control suggests that “people suffering from depression, anxiety and other mental disorders are more than twice as likely to spark up an e-cigarette and three times as likely to ‘vape’ regularly than those without a history of mental issues.” Investigators “at the University of California-San Diego drew their findings from an extensive survey of American smoking habits,” which revealed that “among 10,041 respondents, 14.8% of individuals suffering from mental health disorders said they had tried an e-cigarette, compared with 6.6% of individuals who had no self-reported history of mental disorders.”

HealthDay (5/14, Preidt) reports that the study also found that “more than 60 percent of smokers with mental health disorders said they were likely or very likely to try e-cigarettes in the future, compared with about 45 percent of smokers without mental health conditions.”

Related Links:

— “The Weird Link Between E-Cigarettes and Mental Health Disorders,” Dan Kedmey, Time, May 13, 2014.

Medscape (5/13, MacReady) reports that research published online in Pediatrics suggests that kids “who suffer a concussion may experience symptoms for several weeks after the injury, and those symptoms may differ from the ones seen at presentation.”

HealthDay (5/13, Reinberg) reports that in the “study from the emergency medicine division at Boston Children’s Hospital,” physicians “found that, while headache, dizziness and blurry vision can appear right after a concussion, emotional and mental symptoms, such as irritability and frustration, show up much later and stay longer.” Although the majority of “children recovered within two weeks after the injury, 25 percent still had headache a month after their injury.” Meanwhile, “more than 20 percent suffered from fatigue, and nearly 20 percent reported taking longer to think for a month after their concussion.”

Related Links:

— “Kids’ Concussion Symptoms Can Linger Long After Injury: Study,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, May 12, 2014.

Scientific American (5/13, Upsori) reports that China is facing a public health crisis as the number of elderly people with dementia increases. The country already “has more than nine million people with some form of dementia and more cases of Alzheimer’s disease than any other country, according to a 2013 paper in The Lancet,” the authors of which “dubbed dementia ‘the single largest challenge to health and social care systems’ in China.”

The article goes on to interview psychiatrist Michael Phillips, MD, MA, MPH, who “has dual appointments at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and the Collaborative Center for Global Mental Health at Emory University.” At the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, Dr. Phillips described the challenges China faces as it deals with a growing population of aging people.

Related Links:

— “Health Care Crisis Looms as China Faces Elderly Dementia Upsurge,” Sandra Upson, Scientific American, May 12, 2014.

The Military Times (5/9, Kime) reported that an understanding of what veterans “have experienced during their time in service is vital to good patient care, military officials said recently in a seminar at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.” Now, even though “online short courses are available that cover the obvious — rank, military occupational specialties, histories and traditions — the Pentagon is gearing up to promote a new eight-hour course for health care [professionals] to gain a deeper understanding of military culture.” For example, the course called “‘Military Culture: Core Competencies for Health Care Providers’ covers four subjects: health care provider beliefs and biases; military definitions, language and culture; military functions; and the role of military ethos in health behavior.”

Related Links:

— “Building cultural bridges between doctors, troops,” Patricia Kime , Military Times, May 9, 2014.

HealthDay (5/10, Preidt) reported that according to a study published May 7 in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, “premature menopause may increase a woman’s risk of mental decline later in life.” The study of some 4,800 women revealed that, “compared to those who began menopause after age 50, women with premature menopause were 40 percent more likely to do poorly on verbal and visual memory tests.”

In addition, they “had a 35 percent higher risk of decline in psychomotor speed (coordination between the brain and the muscles that brings about movement) and overall mental function.” The study authors defined premature menopause as occurring around age 40.

Related Links:

— “Premature Menopause May Affect Women’s Brains,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, May 9, 2014.

NBC Nightly News (5/8, story 10, 0:40, Williams) reported that research suggests that “being angry, having frequent arguments with spouses or partners or relatives or neighbors may boost the risk of death from any cause and especially for those in middle age.”

USA Today (5/9, Painter) reports that for the study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, investigators “asked nearly 10,000 men and women ages 36 to 52 how often they ‘experience conflict’ with partners, children, other family members, friends and neighbors.” The researchers “also asked about worries and demands in those relationships.” The investigators “checked death records 11 years later and found that frequent fighters were two to three times more likely than their more peaceable peers to be dead already – even if their fights were mostly with neighbors, not friends or family.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Frequent fighters more likely to die in mid-life,” Kim Painter, USA Today, May 8, 2014.

In its “Shots” blog and on its “All Things Considered” program, NPR (5/9, Cohen) reports that 18 of 107 police officers in Fairfield, CT, have been “specifically trained to respond to mental health calls.” The officers are part of a mental-health crisis intervention program implemented in 2011. Across the US, only about 2,700 such programs exist, even though there are some 18,000 US law enforcement jurisdictions. On May 7, Connecticut legislators approved a measure “ensuring that all police in the state can get some kind of” mental-health crisis intervention training.

Related Links:

— “Mental Health 101: Program Helps Police Intervene In Crises,” Michael Cohen, National Public Radio, May 8, 2014.

In continuing coverage, USA Today (5/9, Szabo) reports that last “December, Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., introduced the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.” This past Tuesday, however, Rep. Ron Barber, D-AZ, “introduced his own, more limited bill, supported by a handful of Democrats, called the Strengthening Mental Health in Our Communities Act of 2014.” Rep. Murphy’s bill is considered to be “more sweeping” than the competing Barber bill. Meanwhile, some advocates for people with mental illnesses are concerned that partisanship could sink the chances of passing any mental health reform legislation, while others believe both measures could provide a compromise framework.

In her “Potomac Watch” opinion column in the Wall Street Journal (5/9, A13, Subscription Publication), Kimberly A. Strassel excoriates the Barber bill as an exercise in Democratic partisanship at the expense of people with severe mental illnesses.

Related Links:

— “Congressmen introduce competing mental health bills,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, May 8, 2014.

Medscape (5/9, Cassels) reports that according to research presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, “cannabis use in college students with psychiatric disorders is high and appears to have a significantly greater negative impact on function in this population.” Researchers, after conducting “a cross-sectional study from the Young Adult Behavioral Health Program at Rhode Island Hospital, which receives psychiatric outpatient referrals from eight colleges in the state,” discovered that nearly “25% of college students being treated for a mental illness also abused cannabis, which was linked to significant functional impairment and a greater likelihood of medical leave from school compared with their counterparts who used cannabis but did not have a mental illness.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)