The Pittsburgh Business Times (6/16, Subscription Publication) reports that research suggests that individuals “with Type 1 diabetes have a higher risk of premature death as their symptoms of depression increase.” For each “one point increase on a 32-point depression measurement scale, study participants showed a 4 percent increase in risk for mortality, even after controlling for such things as age, gender, smoking and cholesterol, lead author Cassie Fickley said.”

Related Links:

— “Depression increases risk of premature death for diabetics,” Kris B. Mamula, Pittsburgh Business Times, June 16, 2014.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune (6/17, Castellano) reports a recent study published in Pediatrics indicates family violence can incite “critical DNA changes that could hasten mental and physical illness” in children. After studying children in the New Orleans, Louisiana, area, “Children ages five to 15 who witnessed family violence, experienced a family member’s suicide or had a family member incarcerated were more likely to undergo cellular aging as evidenced by a shortening of the tips of their chromosomes, the study showed.” The article notes the NIH provided lead study author Dr. Stacy Drury with “$2.4 million to study how families can help prevent such health declines in children related to violence.”

Related Links:

— “Childhood family violence alters DNA, Tulane study of New Orleans kids shows,” Rebecca Catalanello, New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 16, 2014.

In a 2,000-word article, the New York Times (6/17, D1, Belluck, Subscription Publication) reports that “many women” suffering from maternal mental illness “have been afraid to admit to terrifying visions or deadened emotions, believing they should be flush with maternal joy or fearing their babies would be taken from them.” However, “advocacy groups on maternal mental illness are” now “springing up, and some mothers are blogging about their experiences with remarkable candor.” Meanwhile, “a dozen states have passed laws encouraging screening, education and treatment.”

Related Links:

— “After Baby, an Unraveling: A Case Study in Maternal Mental Illness,” Pam Belluck, New York Times, June 16, 2014.

The Burlington (VT) Free Press (6/12, Hemingway) reports that over the “past 15 months, Vermont has been on a mission to quell a growing heroin addiction problem in the state.” Efforts to do so have “involved busting up drug rings importing heroin to the state, vastly expanding opiate addiction treatment programs with collaboration of treatment hubs and local doctors and arming cops and ambulance workers with a drug that can reverse the effects of an opiate overdose.” Back in January, Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-VT) “devoted his entire State of the State message to the Legislature to the heroin problem and what to do about it.”

Related Links:

— “In Vermont, on the front lines of war on heroin,” Sam Hemingway, Burlington Free Press via USA Today, June 12, 2014.

USA Today (6/12, Smith, DeMio) reports on the growth of heroin addiction, saying that “there are medicine-based treatments available today that can give addicts a fighting chance.” The story cites Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, saying that “the stigma attached to drug addiction has dragged down development and investment in better treatment options.”

The story mentions methadone and buprenorphine as possible means of controlling heroin cravings, and naltrexone. It also says that researchers are trying to develop “vaccines.” Volkow is quoted saying, “Multiple targets look promising, but we cannot move them (forward) because research on medication development is terribly expensive,” adding, “the pharmaceutical companies have been resistant to get into the space.”

Related Links:

— “Heroin addicts left trapped; families, heartbroken,” Carrie Blackmore Smith and Terry DeMio, Cincinnati Inquirer via USA Today, June 12, 2014.

In a piece for the New York Times (6/13, Subscription Publication), Parker Marie Molloy, a freelance journalist and activist, praises HHS for overturning the “decades-old ban on Medicare coverage for gender-confirming surgeries,” but warns that state-level restrictions remain. These, she says, leave “many, many” people without such coverage. Molloy concludes by urging readers to “stop fearing what we don’t understand, and push to end the anti-transgender stigma that empowers politicians and insurance companies to deny relatively inexpensive, lifesaving medical treatment.”

However, in a piece for the Wall Street Journal (6/13, Mchugh, Subscription Publication), Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, argues that simply providing surgery for transgendered individuals will not solve their underlying mental health issues.

Related Links:

— “Under the Skin: The Next Fight for Transgender Insurance Equality,” Parker Marie Malloy, New York Times, June 12, 2014.

MedPage Today (6/13, Brown) reports that according to a study published in the June 11 issue of JAMA Psychiatry, expectant mothers “who had symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder [MDD] were four times more likely to deliver preterm than women without symptoms.” While other studies have “shown that women who took antidepressants and benzodiazepine had higher risk of a preterm delivery…the risk associated with PTSD and a major depressive episode (OR 4.08, 95% CI 1.27-13.15) was separate from that risk,” the study of 2,654 women revealed.

Related Links:

— “Preterm Births Higher With PTSD, Depression,” Parker Brown, MedPage Today, June 12, 2014.

Modern Healthcare (6/11, Conn, Subscription Publication) reports that yesterday, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration conducted a “daylong ‘listening session,’” the subject of which was “whether patients of federally funded drug and alcohol abuse programs should continue to enjoy some of the most stringent privacy protections in all of US healthcare.”

Last month, SAMHSA gave written notice “that it was considering amending the rule covering drug and alcohol abuse records because some complain the rule’s more stringent privacy protections present barriers to record-sharing” which, some critics charge “impinge on the ability of new care models such as accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes to provide coordinated care at lower costs.”

Related Links:

— “Limits on sharing substance abuse patients’ records under debate,” Joseph Conn, Modern Healthcare, June 11, 2014. (Requires registration)

The Kaiser Health News (6/11, Hancock) “Capsules” blog reported that according to a National Bureau of Economic Review working paper produced by researchers at Purdue and Indiana Universities, “expanded coverage for young adults under the Affordable Care Act substantially raised inpatient hospital visits related to mental health.” Economist Kosali Simon, of Indiana University, who helped author the paper, pointed out that “greater hospital use by the newly insured might be caused by inadequate outpatient resources to treat mental-health patients earlier and less expensively.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Health Law Boosts Hospital Psych Care For Young Adults,” Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News, June 11, 2014.

The CBS News (6/12, Firger) website reported that “some experts say it’s past time to start thinking about mass violence as a public health crisis.” Instead of “just continuing to debate gun reform and the failings of the mental health system, they say the way to stop the cycle is to treat gun violence as a disease and involve health care workers in combatting it.”

In April 2013, JAMA Internal Medicine published an article stating: “The secretary of Health and Human Services, the Surgeon General, the director of the CDC, and the director of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control should be allowed to protect the public health by working to reduce injuries and deaths from firearms, in the same way that they work to reduce injuries and deaths from poisonings, motor vehicle traffic accidents, and falls.”

Related Links:

— “Is gun violence a public health issue?,” Jessica Firgir, CBS News, June 11, 2014.