HealthDay (4/10, Reinberg) reports that a study published online April 10 in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology suggests that people “who are overweight or obese in middle age may be less likely to develop dementia than their normal and underweight peers.” The study, which included almost two million people, revealed that “overweight and obese people were about 30 percent less likely to develop dementia 15 years later than people of a healthy weight.” In contrast, “underweight people were 34 percent more likely to develop dementia than those whose weight was normal.” Also covering the story are BBC News (4/10, Gallagher), The Guardian (UK) (4/10, Boseley) and the Daily Mail (UK)(4/10, Hope).

Related Links:

— “Could Obesity Help Protect Against Dementia?,”Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, April 10, 2015.

In a nearly 3,700-word story on the front of its New York section, the New York Times (4/12, MB1, Winerip, Schwirtz) reports on the issue of prison inmates who suffer from mental illness, noting some “are more likely than other inmates to be the victims as well as the perpetrators of violence.” Using the story of Rikers Island inmate Michael Megginson as an example, the piece shows how the prison system is unequipped to handle complicated psychiatric problems. It reports that “unlike jail, psychiatric hospitals treated his behavior as a symptom of illness,” though “that option has all but disappeared. For the last four decades, the push in the mental health field has been to close these hospitals.”

Related Links:

— “For Mentally Ill Inmates at Rikers Island, a Cycle of Jail and Hospitals,”Michael Winerip, The New York Times, April 10, 2015.

HealthDay (4/8, Preidt) reports that research published online in European Psychiatry suggests that “hospital patients who are alcoholics have an increased risk of dying in the hospital.” The study indicated that “one in five of the patients with alcoholism died while in the hospital, compared with one in 12 patients in” a “control group.” The investigators also “found that, on average, those with alcoholism were likely to be about eight years younger when they died than people without a drinking problem.”

Related Links:

— “Alcoholics Face Greater Death Risk When Hospitalized,”Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 07, 2015.

USA Today (4/8, Guynn) reports that research published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology suggests that “liking other people’s status updates and photos on Facebook could make you like yourself less.” The study’s lead author pointed out that “people with emotional difficulties” appear to be “most vulnerable.”

The Washington Post (4/7, Moyer) “Morning Mix” blog reported that in arriving at these conclusions, researchers “completed two experiments with more than 100 subjects designed to measure their Facebook usage, depressive symptoms and tendency to compare themselves with others.” Participants “completed questionnaires and/or kept diaries, self-reporting their behavior and states of mind.” The study revealed that “spending a great deal of time on Facebook (or viewing Facebook more frequently) is positively related to comparing one’s self to others…which in turn is associated with increased depressive symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “Your Facebook friends’ fabulous lives can leave you down,”Jessica Guynn, USA Today, April 10, 2015.

Forbes (4/7, Blanding) reports that “a 2013 survey by the American Psychiatric Association found that one-third of working Americans experienced chronic work stress, while only 36 percent reported their employers provided adequate support to manage it.” Meanwhile, “according to the National Institute of Mental Health, some 6.7 percent of American adults experience ‘major depressive disorder.” Some companies are now being “proactive about integrating mental health into their wellness programs alongside physical health,” either through Employee Assistance Programs or by changing corporate culture to integrate “life management programs with mental health.”

Related Links:

— “Will The Germanwings Crash Affect How Employers Approach Mental Health?,”Michael Blanding, Forbes, April 06, 2015.

USA Today (4/7, Zoroya) reports that a RAND survey published online April 6 in the journal Spirituality in Clinical Practice suggests that “chaplains who are part of the Army’s first line of defense against suicide say they need more training in how to prevent soldiers from killing themselves.” After conducting the “online survey of about 4,900 Army chaplains and chaplain assistants and bas[ing] their results on validated responses from about 1,500,” researchers also found that “chaplains and chaplain assistants hold some of the same negative views about therapy that often discourage soldiers from seeing a behavioral health specialist.”

Related Links:

— “Army chaplains need training to help suicidal soldiers,”Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, April 06, 2015.

The Baltimore Sun (4/6) “Maryland Politics” blog reports that Maryland state senators “approved legislation Monday night imposing a moratorium on the sale of powdered alcohol for the next two years.” Health officials have said the product “poses a danger because of its potency and the possibility it could be mixed with alcoholic beverages instead of with water.”

Related Links:

— “Senators approve ban on powdered alcohol sales,”Michael Dresser, The Baltimore Sun, April 06, 2015.

The New York Times (4/7, D4, Goode, Subscription Publication) reports that in wake of the March 24 Germanwings crash, “studies over the last decades have begun to piece together characteristics that many who carry out such violence seem to share, among them a towering narcissism, a strong sense of grievance and a desire for infamy.” James L. Knoll, MD, director of forensic psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University, said, “People want an easily graspable handle to help understand this, to blame something or scapegoat.” However, “to zero in on depression is ‘a low-yield dead end,’ he said, adding, ‘There’s something fundamentally different here, aside and apart from the depression, and that’s where we need to look.’”

Related Links:

— “The Mind of Those Who Kill, and Kill Themselves,”Erica Goode, The New York Times, April 06, 2015.

The Wall Street Journal (4/7, A4, Armour, Subscription Publication) reports that the Administration has proposed a rule under which Medicaid recipients who receive services from managed care organizations and alternative benefit plans would have access to the same mental health and substance abuse benefits provided by private health plans. The proposed rule wouldn’t change state limits on Medicaid fee-for-service plans.

Related Links:

— “Obama Administration Proposes Rules for Medicaid Mental Health Parity,”Stephanie Armour, The Wall Street Journal, April 06, 2015.

According to Medscape (4/9), “The incidence of healthy elderly patients raising the issue of ‘rational suicide’ is on the rise, and clinicians need to be prepared to address it.” Medscape points out that “at the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) 2015 Annual Meeting, a session dedicated to the issue aimed to provide guidance to clinicians who may be faced with elderly patients expressing a desire to die by suicide while they are still relatively healthy and cognitively intact.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)