On the front of its Business Day section, the New York Times (4/4, B1, Abrams, Subscription Publication) reported on the state and Federal lawmakers who seek to ban powdered alcohol, Palcohol, “before it even comes to market,” amid concerns that the substance could be easily abused. So far, “six states have passed legislation to ban powdered alcohol outright,” and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “introduced a bill last month that would ban its sale and manufacture nationwide.” While in the past the FDA “has weighed in on some alcoholic products, like the beverage Four Loko,” the agency has not “become involved with Palcohol,” and “said that the ingredients in Palcohol were typical of those found in many processed foods and that they complied with” regulations.

Related Links:

— “Powdered Alcohol Meets Resistance in U.S. Before It Even Comes to Market,” RACHEL ABRAMS, New York Times, April 3, 2015.

Politico (4/4, Villakorta) reported that with the Germanwings plane crash encouraging discussion about suicide, “National Institute of Mental Health Director Thomas Insel is urging people not to forget about this public health problem once it fades from the headlines.” Dr. Insel stated, “Unlike many of the leading causes of death, the suicide rate has shown no appreciable decline over the last 50 years; indeed, the rate among middle-aged Americans is increasing, and for young people ages 15-34, it is not the tenth, but the second leading cause of death.” He added, “When will we change our national habit of paying brief attention to suicide when circumstances make it newsworthy and start viewing it as the major public health problem it is: one to be addressed by marshaling — and sustaining — research, as we have for other health issues, with the clear goal of saving lives.

Related Links:

— “The downsides to the SGR fix — Obamacare’s next fight: the Cadillac tax — Gruber too high with repeal estimate,” NATALIE VILLACORTA, Politico, April 3, 2015.

The Los Angeles Times (4/6, Healy) reported in a 1,700-word story that “mental health experts say that it was aggression — not just depression — that would have driven 27-year-old Andreas Lubitz to deliberately crash a Germanwings airliner into a mountainside.” But, “unless investigators recognize the toxic role of aggression and hostility in some patients’ depression, they say, such troubled individuals will continue to elude detection — to the public’s peril.” The piece quoted aggression researcher and neuropsychiatrist Jeff Victoroff, MD, of the University of South California’s Keck School of Medicine, who said of Lubitz. “This was a murderous guy who probably had elements of a mood disorder and personality disorders.” Forensic psychiatrist Steven E. Pitt, DO, said, “There has to be a maladaptive character defect, a character disorder here.”

In an essay for Scientific American (4/6) titled “What Should Lufthansa Have Done to Prevent the Germanwings Tragedy?,” psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, immediate past president of the American Psychiatric Association, wrote that “the critical question is not whether someone has had an illness but whether it has been adequately treated and they are actively symptomatic or not.” Dr. Lieberman pointed out, “With some exceptions (commercial pilot licenses are not available to people with type 1 diabetes or epilepsy), we do not prohibit people from jobs just because they have an illness, unless its symptoms impair their ability to function adequately.” Dr. Lieberman concluded, “In general, someone who has a prior history of depression but has been effectively treated and is no longer symptomatic should not be prohibited from working,” and “forcing people to go underground with their mental illness will not make us safer in the air – or anywhere else.”

Related Links:

— “Aggression, not just depression, led copilot to crash plane, experts say,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, April 5, 2015.

The Wall Street Journal (4/18, McGinty, Subscription Publication) reported that the NCAA, in partnership with the Defense Department, is funding a three-year, $30 million project to study the effects of concussions on about 37,000 student-athletes. The Journal reported that the concussion study seeks to record concussion effects from the initial hit through complete rehabilitation.

Related Links:

— “Short on Concussion Data, NCAA Sets Out to Get Some,” Jo Craven McGinty, Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2015.

HealthDay (4/18, Preidt) reported that adolescent “boys who have been a victim of sexual assault are likelier to attempt suicide,” according to a study published online in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. After analyzing “data from more than 31,000 American teens, aged 14 to 18, who took part in surveys in 2009 and 2011,” researchers found that among teen “boys, 3.5 percent of those with no history of sexual assault attempted suicide within the past year, compared with more than 33 percent of those who had been sexually assaulted.”

Related Links:

— “1 in 3 Teen Boys Sexually Assaulted Tries Suicide, Study Finds,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 17, 2015.

The Wall Street Journal (4/20, A3, Palazzolo, Subscription Publication) reports that across the US, there is a growing number of inmates with serious mental health disorders who are incarcerated awaiting trial due to mental competency issues. Unfortunately, there are not enough mental healthcare professionals or state psychiatric hospital beds available to help restore these inmates to competency so they can stand trial. Some states are now addressing the problem by creating restoration programs in jails or by establishing mental-health courts.

Related Links:

— “Mental-Health Treatment for Defendants Dogged by Delays,” Joe Palazzolo, Wall Street Journal, April 19, 2015.

The Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette (4/12, Smydo) reported that at a “gathering of mental health advocates,” New York Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall discussed his struggle with mental illness and how he “pursued treatment for his borderline personality disorder, which is characterized by emotional instability.” Now Marshall has become “a high-profile advocate for mental health care and ending the stigma around mental illness.”

Related Links:

— “NFL player Brandon Marshall speaks out on tackling stigma of mental illness,”Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 12, 2015.

Think Progress (4/11, Collins) reported that a new Urban Institute report found that “a shortage of in-house mental health services for a growing mentally disabled population, variations in the definition and management of psychological ailments, and lack of support for former inmates has created a national criminal justice system that has shortchanged millions of mentally ill inmates.” However, the report indicated that “there may be some hope in mental health courts and other diversion services that aim to provide mentally ill offenders with alternatives to incarceration that tackle the root of why they committed crime in the first place.”

Related Links:

— “Introducing Mental Health Courts,”SAM P.K. Collins, Think Progress, April 10, 2015.

HealthDay (4/11, Norton) reported that a study published online Feb. 16 in the journal Anxiety, Stress & Coping suggests that “service members who have to deal with trouble at home when they’re deployed may be at increased risk of suicidal thoughts.” After conducting a survey involving “more than 1,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets, researchers found that about 14 percent said they’d had suicidal thoughts in recent months.” What’s more, “the odds were greater for those who’d dealt with family stress or felt unsupported by family members during their deployment.”

Related Links:

— “Family Stress May Figure in Soldiers’ Suicide Risk,”Amy Norton, HealthDay, April 10, 2015.

NPR (4/12, Martin) reported on its website and on its “Weekend Edition Sunday” program that the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that “16 million Americans had at least one major depressive episode in the past year. Of that number, many struggle with whether and how to talk about their depression in the workplace.”

Related Links:

— “Working Through Depression: Many Stay On The Job, Despite Mental Illness,”Rachel Martin , NPR, April 12, 2015.