Healio (1/16) reports that recently, the American Psychiatric Association “issued a letter to Congress to ensure continued access to care for individuals with mental health and substance use disorders.” In the letter, APA President Maria A. Oquendo, MD, PhD, and APA CEO and medical director Saul Levin, MD, MPA, wrote, “On behalf of the APA, the national medical specialty association representing over 36,500 psychiatric physicians nationwide, we urge you to support continued and expanded access to quality evidence-based mental health care services.” The letter added, “As Congress considers significant reforms to health insurance coverage this year, it is critical that any such reforms do not undo the gains which have been made over the past several years for individuals with mental illness, and that any such reforms only further enhance coverage and access to lifesaving evidence-based care.”

Related Links:

— “APA urges Congress to protect access to mental health care,Healio, January 16, 2017.

DOT Med News (1/16, Dworetzky) reports research suggests that “even moderate traumatic brain injury [TBI] may cause brain atrophy and cognitive decline in those with a genetic pre-disposition for” Alzheimer’s. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after using magnetic resonance “brain imaging to examine 160 veterans, some of whom had histories of single or multiple concussions.” The findings were published online Jan. 11 in the journal Brain.

Related Links:

— “Single concussion could boost Alzheimer’s risk: study,”Thomas Dworetzky, DOT Med News, January 16, 2017.

In continuing coverage of fallout from the Fort Lauderdale, FL airport shootings, the New York Times (1/14, A9, Johnson, Subscription Publication) reported that in Alaska, where shooter Esteban Santiago lived, mental healthcare professionals “and legal experts said the distinctive demographic, geographic and cultural stamp of the state also colors the often nuanced judgments that doctors, law enforcement officers and judges must make in deciding whether to hold a disturbed person against his or her will.” The state, “they said, is ingrained with a deep tradition of tolerance – fueled by libertarian instincts holding that people should be able to believe what they want, however eccentric or irrational.” Even in circumstances in which “people are involuntarily committed for treatment, the median length of stay, at only five days, is shorter than in almost any other state.”

The AP (1/14, Kennedy) reported that Florida airport shooter Esteban Santiago’s visit to an FBI office in Alaska, where he told “agents the government was controlling his mind and that he was having terroristic thoughts,” highlights what authorities say is “the difficulty is in assessing whether people are reporting a credible threat, or whether they need medical help.” Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association executive director and former Secret Service supervisor and Pat O’Carroll said, “A lot of resources, time and effort are all put into dealing with mentally challenged people and trying to sort through that type of information to find out what’s valid.” This also poses a challenge for authorities who “don’t have the expertise to make that determination and don’t want to stigmatize people.”

Related Links:

— “A Rampage in Florida Shines a Light on Alaska,”Kirk Johnson, The New York Times, January 13, 2017.

In an opposing viewpoint in USA Today (1/12, Fisher), psychiatrist Daniel B. Fisher, MD, PhD, an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, is against “increasing forced psychiatric treatment.” Instead, he writes, “my experience as a board-certified psychiatrist – and as someone who has recovered from schizophrenia – teaches me that we need to expand access to recovery-oriented mental health services and to make them more welcoming to increase engagement with people early in their distress.” According to Dr. Fisher, “Increasing access requires more funding for community-based services, not repealing the Affordable Care Act, leaving millions with mental health issues without services.”

Related Links:

— “Forced treatment is not the way: Opposing view,”Daniel B. Fisher, USA Today, January 12, 2017.

USA Today (1/12, Board) editorializes in wake of the recent Ft. Lauderdale, FL airport shootings that guns should be kept “out of the hands of” people with mental illness and not returned “to them on a silver platter.” USA Today hails as “a promising solution” the fact that “a handful” of states now “allow police or family members to seek a ‘gun restraining order’ in court against a person who presents a credible risk for violence.” Should the judge agree, “the person is barred from buying a gun or keeping ones he owns.”

Related Links:

— “Keep guns away from the mentally ill: Our view,”The Editorial Board, USA Today, January 12, 2017.

The CBS Evening News (1/12, story 9, 1:30, Pelley) reported, “Some of the nation’s top doctors and public health experts put out a landmark report today on the health effects of marijuana.”

USA Today (1/12, Hughes) says a report released Thursday by a federal panel of medical professionals concluded that marijuana “appears to be an effective treatment for chronic pain, nausea and symptoms of multiple sclerosis.” The report “says there’s ‘conclusive or substantial’ research backing the effectiveness of cannabis for those three conditions. But it also warns of dangers from marijuana use: an increased risk of car crashes, lower birth weight babies and problems with memory and attention with heavy use.” The panel “also found strong connections between heavy cannabis use and the development of schizophrenia and other psychoses.”

The AP (1/12, Ritter) reports the National Academics of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine “called for a national effort to learn more about marijuana and its chemical cousins, including similarly acting compounds called cannabinoids.” The report stressed the need for more scientific information so that patients, healthcare professionals and policy makers can have more evidence to make sound decisions.

Related Links:

— “Marijuana can help some patients, but doctors say more research needed,”Trevor Hughes, USA Today, January 12, 2017.

Reuters (1/11, Rapaport) reports, “Children who get more exercise may have fewer symptoms of depression than their peers who are less active,” researchers found after analyzing data on “795 kids at age 6, 699 at age 8 and 702 at age 10.” The findings were published online Jan. 11 in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Active kids less likely to be depressed later on,”Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, January 11, 2017.

Kaiser Health News (1/9, Luthra) reports that many patients and community health centers, which have benefited from the ACA through increased access to healthcare and new streams of revenue, respectively, now face uncertainty as Republicans and the incoming Trump Administration move to repeal the healthcare law. Two studies recently published in Health Affairs analyzing data from the Federal Health Resources and Service Administration to examine Medicaid for low-income people found that “in states that opted into the expansion, health centers saw more patient visits, lower rates of uninsured patients…and an increase in patients specifically seeking mental health care.”

Related Links:

— “Obamacare Boosted Community Health Centers’ Reach. Now What?,”Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News, January 9, 2017.

USA Today (1/7, Swartz, Shesgreen) reported that Esteban Santiago, accused of killing five people in the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport shooting on Friday, allegedly told FBI agents in November that he believed ISIL was controlling his mind and instructing him to commit violent acts on the group’s behalf. Whether Santiago’s mental health issues resulted from his military service in Iraq remains unclear, however. But, “according to a 2008 study by the RAND Corp., nearly 20% of American service members returning from Afghanistan and Iraq suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.” Still, “only about half of those who need treatment for PTSD seek it.” Some advocates for veterans “say there are a number of barriers to treatment, including stigma and shame surrounding mental health problems and long wait times to receive care.”

The Christian Science Monitor (1/7, Iaconangelo) reported “studies show that the mentally ill account for just 1 percent of gun violence against strangers, although almost two-thirds of the American public sees such incidents as a reflection of failures in the mental health system, the Pew Research Center” has found. Now, “as details emerge, the Fort Lauderdale shooting may ignite fresh debates over whether law-enforcement and mental-health authorities could have done more, or if they should be able to more freely disclose patient information for the good of public safety.”

Related Links:

— “Fla. shooting raises question about vets’ mental-health care,”Jon Swartz and Deirdre Shesgreen, USA Today, January 8, 2017.

TIME (1/9, Park) reports researchers found that “children who exercised more, at a moderate to vigorous intensity, showed fewer depressive symptoms years later.” The study of 800 children also found that “the amount of time the children spent being sedentary did not predict depression,” suggesting that a child’s “amount of active time might matter more,” even if the child spends a majority of the day sitting. The researchers advise doctors to tell “children with depression and their parents to be more active.” The findings were published in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “How Exercise Can Help Depression in Kids,”Alice Park, TIME, January 8, 2017.