Medscape (4/4, Davenport) reports youngsters “who suffer severe physical, sexual, or psychological violence when taking part in youth sport are more likely to experience mental health problems as adults,” research suggests. The study “of more than 4000 adults showed that experiencing severe interpersonal violence during youth sport increased the risk for depression, anxiety, and somatic problems,” and “also affected overall mental health.” The findings were presented at the European Psychiatric Association 2017 Congress.

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The AP (4/4, Yen) reports Steve Young, a Department of Veterans Affairs deputy undersecretary, testified before the House Veterans Affairs Committee that the department has improved the operation of its suicide hotline. Young said that calls are now answered within eight seconds on average and that it was now “rare” for calls to be bumped to a backup center.

Related Links:

— “VA DEFENDS WORK TO FIX TROUBLED VETERAN SUICIDE HOTLINE,” HOPE YEN, Associate Press, April 4, 2017.

In an opinion piece, psychology professors Christopher J. Ferguson, of Stetson University, PhD, and Patrick Markey, PhD, of Villanova, wrote in the New York Times (4/2, SR6, Subscription Publication), “A large-scale study (4/3, Subscription Publication) of internet-based games recently published in the American Journal of Psychiatry bears out our skepticism about” video game “addiction.” The pair wrote, “Using the American Psychiatric Association’s own metrics for ascertaining psychiatric disorder, the study’s researchers found that at most one percent of video game players might exhibit characteristics of an addiction and that the games were significantly less addictive than, say, gambling.” The study also revealed that nearly “none of those classified as being possibly addicted to video games experienced negative outcomes from this addiction.”

Related Links:

— “Video Games Aren’t Addictive,” CHRISTOPHER J. FERGUSON and PATRICK MARKEY, New York Times, April 1, 2017.

HealthDay (3/31, Pallarito) reported couples raising children with autism may spend less time together than couples who are raising children without autism, according to a study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Researchers found that couples raising a child with autism on average spent “21 fewer minutes a day with their partner than a comparison group of parents.” The study, which included 174 couples with a child with autism and 179 couples without a child with autism, was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Related Links:

— “Parents of Kids With Autism May Sacrifice ‘Couples Time’,” Karen Pallarito, HealthDay, March 31, 2017.

The Washington Post (3/31, Gregg) reported, “Johns Hopkins University has pulled out” of a study to test whether marijuana can “treat post-traumatic stress disorder.” A spokeswoman for Johns Hopkins “said the university’s goals were no longer aligned with those of the administrator of the study, the Santa Cruz-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS),” while “a spokesman for MAPS said the dispute was over federal drug policy, and whether to openly challenge federal rules that say medical cannabis research must rely on marijuana grown by the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse.”

Related Links:

— “Johns Hopkins was ready to test pot as a treatment for PTSD. Then it quit the study.,” Aaron Gregg, Washington Post, April 2, 2017.

HealthDay (3/31, Preidt) reported, “Adults who self-harm appear to be at increased risk for suicide over the next year,” researchers found after examining “Medicaid data on more than 62,000 people in 45 states diagnosed with an initial self-harm episode between 2001 and 2007.” The findings were published online March 21 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Self-Harm Can Be a Harbinger of Suicide,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April , 2017.

Medscape (3/30, Anderson) reports a panel of experts has “released a new report [pdf] containing recommendations to rectify the severe shortage of psychiatrists and the dearth of mental health services in the” US. Contained in the report are “a wide-ranging set of recommendations that touch on every area of the specialty, including training, funding, and models of care delivery.” American Psychiatric Association (APA) CEO and Medical Director Saul M. Levin, MD, joined the report’s lead authors to discuss “the report’s recommendations at a press briefing on March 28.” The experts “recommended new and advanced forms of treatment, such as collaborative care and telepsychiatry. ‘We should all be advocating for new, innovative models of care, such as telepsychiatry, which can increase access to specialty psychiatric services across the country,’ said Dr Levin.” The APA now “has a toolkit to help educate psychiatrists and other healthcare” professionals “on how to practice telepsychiatry, said Dr Levin.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Reuters (3/30, Kelland) reports, “Depression is now the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO)” announced on March 30, “with more than 300 million people suffering” from the disorder. In fact, “rates of depression have risen by more than 18 percent since 2005, but a lack of support for the mental health combined with a common fear of stigma means many do not get the treatment they need to live healthy, productive lives.” The organization is now “running a mental health campaign to tackle stigma and misconceptions called ‘Depression: Let’s Talk.’”

The New York Daily News (3/30, Jagannathan) reports the WHO campaign “urges sufferers to both seek and get help for depression.” Currently, the WHO “estimates depression and anxiety fuel a global loss of roughly $1 trillion associated with lost productivity, people being unable to work and health care expenses…said” Dr. Shekhar Saxena, director of the WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Even in countries with higher incomes and “advanced health care systems,” almost “half of people suffering from depression aren’t properly identified or treated.”

Related Links:

— “‘Let’s Talk’, WHO says, as depression rates rise 18 percent in a decade,” Kate Kelland, Reuters, March 30, 2017.

The Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer (3/29, Giordano) reports, “Women who suffered multiple traumatic events as they were growing up are at significant risk of serious depression beginning in the years leading into menopause,” researchers found.
HealthDay (3/29, Preidt) reports investigators arrived at these conclusions after following some 250 women for “16 years.” The findings were published online March 29 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Study: Girlhood trauma linked to depression in menopause,” Rita Giordano, Philadelphia Inquirer, March 29, 2017.

Reuters (3/29, Reaney) reports that “heroin use in the United States has risen five-fold” over the past 10 years, while heroin addiction “has more than tripled, with the biggest jumps among whites and men with low incomes and little education,” researchers say. They found “no differences in heroin use or addiction among the major regions of the country.” Their findings were published online in JAMA Psychiatry.

CNN (3/29, Kounang) reports that “more people die from drug overdoses than from guns or car accidents.” Now, more people die of drug overdoses than died from AIDS during the “peak” of the epidemic in 1995.

TIME (3/29, Sifferlin) reports that heroin use increased among white Americans “increased from 0.34% in the earlier years to 1.90% in the later years,” compared to “0.32% in 2001-2002 and 1.05% in 2012-2013” among non-whites.

Related Links:

— “Heroin use, addiction up sharply among U.S. whites: study,” Patricia Reaney, Reuters, March 29, 2017.