HealthDay (10/13, Preidt) reports non-heterosexual adults are more likely to use illicit drugs or to have a mental illness than their heterosexual peers, and they are also more likely to seek treatment for drug use or mental illness than their heterosexual peers, according to a report from the US government based on data from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Kana Emoto, the deputy principal administrator at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminisration, said, “This report offers unprecedented insight into the behavioral health needs of lesbian, gay, and bisexual Americans – people critical to our community whose health concerns have often been overlooked.”Related Links:

— “Mixed News on Drug Abuse Among Lesbian, Gay Americans,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, October 13, 2016.

On its website, ABC News (10/13, Mohney) reports that natural disasters may cause “an increased risk of substance abuse,” researchers found after examining “data from New Orleans” on people who survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Investigators “found that the rate of hospitalizations for substance abuse increased approximately 30 percent, from 7.13 hospitalizations for 1,000 people to 9.65 hospitalizations for every 1,000 people.” The findings were published in Oct. 13 in the CDC’s Preventing Chronic Disease journal.

Related Links:

— “Natural Disasters May Increase Substance Abuse Risk, Study Finds,” GILLIAN MOHNEY, ABC News, October 13, 2016.

HCP Live (10/12, Lutz) reports, “Mental health treatment disparities exist for black and Hispanic children and youth with behavioral and psychiatric problems,” researchers found after reviewing data from “the 2006 to 2012 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys.” Investigators found that despite similar rates of mental health conditions, “black and Latino children made 37% and 49% fewer visits to psychiatrists, respectively, than white children.” The findings were published online Aug. 12 in the International Journal of Health Services.

Related Links:

— “Ethnic Disparities in Pediatric Psychiatric Treatment Hard to Ignore,” Rachel Lutz, HCP Live, October 12, 2016.

Medscape (10/12, Harrison) reports, “A novel way of delivering healthcare services to” people with severe mental illness “may prevent the predictable downward spiral to homelessness, provided patients have a home where these services can be delivered and a family member who can provide psychosocial support,” researchers found. At the Institute of Psychiatric Services (IPS): The Mental Health Services 2016 Conference, investigators described the success of the Parachute NYC program, which is a “community-based mental health initiative that deploys mobile teams to treat” people with serious mental illnesses “in their homes.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HCP Live (10/12, Lutz) reports that “less than one-third of adults with depression receive treatment,” researchers found after analyzing “treatment data for approximately 46,000 adults between 2012 and 2013 to characterize the treatment of adult depression.” The findings were published in the October issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Few Adults with Depression Receive Treatment,” Rachel Lutz, HCP Live, October 12, 2016.

CNN (10/12, Scutti) reports that when selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are taken during pregnancy, the medications may be “associated with a higher risk of language disorders, including dyslexia, in offspring.” Included in the study were “15,596 mothers who purchased SSRIs once or more before or during pregnancy,” another “9,537 mothers who had been diagnosed with depression or another psychiatric disorder but did not purchase antidepressants during pregnancy,” and “31,207 mothers who had never been diagnosed with depression and never purchased antidepressants.” The findings were published online Oct. 12 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Study links antidepressants in pregnancy with language disorders,” Susan Scutti, CNN, October 12, 2016.

The AP (10/11) reports the US Supreme Court will not “hear a dispute between West Virginia health officials and a patient advocacy group over access to medical records.” On Oct. 11, “the justices…let stand a state court ruling that said federal laws protecting health record privacy don’t prevent Legal Aid of West Virginia from reviewing patient files at the state’s two psychiatric hospitals.”

Related Links:

— “JUSTICES WON’T HEAR DISPUTE OVER ACCESS TO HEALTH RECORDS,” Associated Press, October 11, 2016.

Reuters (10/11, Rapaport) reports that research suggests “insomnia patients who focus on behavioral changes may be less stressed and more functional during the day than counterparts relying on medication.” Investigators “offered 160 adults with chronic insomnia six weeks of treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT); half of them were also randomly selected to take medication in addition to counseling.”

Investigators found, “at the end of this experiment, patients in both groups slept better, but only the people who received therapy alone reported significant reductions in how much sleep impacted their daytime functioning and things like memory, concentration and quality of life as well as declines in anxiety, depression and fatigue.” The findings were published online in Behavior Research Therapy.

Related Links:

— “Behavior therapy linked to less stress from insomnia,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, October 11, 2016.

In a special piece for the Washington Post (10/9) “Health & Science” blog, Nathaniel Morris, MD, a resident physician in psychiatry at the Stanford University of Medicine, who has personally struggled with depression, wrote that “suicide is a major issue for medical schools.” Surveys have found that approximately “10 percent of medical students have reported having thoughts of killing themselves within the past year.”

What’s more, instead of “receiving support in these situations, these students often suffer humiliation from senior clinicians.” The “stigma of mental illness” has been “especially hard to overcome” in the medical school setting, Dr. Morris asserted.

Related Links:

— “Medical school can be brutal, and it’s making many of us suicidal,” Nathaniel Morris, Washington Post, October 9, 2016.

In a more than 5,700-word front-page analysis, the New York Times (10/9, A1, Apuzzo, Fink, Risen, Subscription Publication) discussed the long term psychological harm that “extraordinary interrogation” methods have caused for terrorism suspects at CIA and military prisons around the world, including Guantánamo Bay.

According to the Times, in the post-9/11 period, Americans debated whether some of these interrogation techniques amounted to torture, but that in this debate the “human toll has gone largely uncalculated.” The article pointed out that dozens of detainees have reported “persistent mental health problems” resulting from “enduring agonizing treatment.”

Related Links:

— “How U.S. Torture Left a Legacy of Damaged Minds,” MATT APUZZO, SHERI FINK and JAMES RISEN, New York Times, October 9, 2016.