A more than 5,000-word New York Times (11/13, A1, Fink, Subscription Publication) analysis examines mental healthcare for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, saying that the “United States defends the quality of mental health care” at the prison as “humane and appropriate,” while “Detainees, human rights groups and doctors consulting for defense teams offer more critical assessments, describing it as negligent or ineffective in many cases.” The article highlights Lt. Cmdr. Shay Rosecrans tenure at Guantánamo, a Navy officer who “led one of the mental health teams” at the prison “over the past 15 years.” The Times notes psychiatrists and psychologists assigned to the prison “received little training for the assignment” and often reported feeling “unprepared to tend to men they were told were ‘the worst of the worst.’”

Related Links:

— “Where Even Nightmares Are Classified:
Psychiatric Care at Guantánamo,”Sheri Fink, The New York Times, November 13, 2016.

In a nearly 2,000-word piece titled “How Can I Afford Mental Health Care?,” the New York Magazine (11/11, Cowles) quoted Harsh Trivedi, MD, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing, who said, “Of all Americans who are clinically depressed and need help, less than half of them are diagnosed, let alone get any kind of help for it.” Dr. Trivedi added, “Of those who do get diagnosed with clinical depression, only about 30 percent get sufficient treatment to return to their normal functioning,” a “low percentage” that “has a lot to do with lack of access to care and not being able to use your health benefits to cover it.”

Related Links:

— “How Can I Afford Mental Health Care?,”Charlotte Cowles, The New York Magazine, November 11, 2016.

CNN (11/11, Ravitz) reported that last Tuesday’s election results have resulted in an “unexpected flood of calls to crisis and suicide prevention services.”

The Christian Science Monitor (11/13, Hoover) reported, “Following Mr. Trump’s victory, services like the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, the Crisis Text Line, and the Trevor Project, which focuses on helping LGBTQ youth, fielded hundreds or thousands of inquiries from Americans who feared they might lose health care and civil rights under a Trump administration, or” encounter “additional harassment from a sect of his increasingly vocal and radical supporters.”

Related Links:

— “Calls to crisis and suicide prevention hotlines surge post-election,”Jessica Ravitz, CNN, November 11, 2016.

Healio (11/11, Oldt) reported, “Fewer daylight hours between sunrise and sunset was associated with poorer mental health,” researchers found after studying “19 weather and pollution variables with self-reported mental health data for university students participating in mental health treatment (n = 16,452).” The findings were published in the November issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Less daylight may lead to poorer mental health, Healio, November 11, 2016.

Reuters (11/10, Doyle) reports that researchers have found that “during pregnancy, women and their male partners sometimes report insomnia or insufficient sleep, which may be tied to depression.” Nearly “half of women reported that they slept more than usual during pregnancy, but did not have better quality sleep, said senior author Tiina Paunio.” The investigators found that “overall, 12 percent of women and 15 percent of men had either insomnia or too little sleep.” The findings were published online in Sleep Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Insomnia, poor sleep quality common for men and women during pregnancy,” Kathryn Doyle, Reuters, November 10, 2016.

The Huffington Post (11/9, Schumaker) reports a study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research reviewed 17 studies concerning the effects of alcohol policies on suicide rates, finding “that polices like alcohol taxation, limiting the number of stores that sell alcohol in a given area, increasing minimum drinking ages and restricting hours for alcohol sales were associated with lower suicide rates.” Study author Ziming Xuan said, “If one can reduce the average alcohol consumption in a population level, then ideally we can shift the [suicide] risk at a population level.”

Related Links:

— “How Little-Known Tax Laws Could Drive Down Our Suicide Rate,”Erin Schumaker, The Huffington Post, November 9, 2016.

HealthDay (11/8, Norton) reports that over the past 10 years, “‘self-harm’ has been the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in Colorado,” researchers found after examining maternal death records in that state between 2004 and 2012, including “both deaths during a pregnancy or in the year afterward.” In fact, “of all 211 maternal deaths in Colorado between 2004 and 2012, 30 percent were attributed to self-harm,” including “suicides and…overdoses – most often in the year after a woman gave birth,” the study revealed.

Related Links:

— “Self-Harm a Cause of Death During Pregnancy and for New Moms,”Amy Norton, HealthDay, November 8, 2016.

Reuters (11/8, Doyle) reports that in the aftermath of a car accident, youngsters may “experience post-traumatic stress disorder for months or years afterward although parents may have trouble recognizing it,” researchers found after studying “71 families of children ages two to 10 and their parents or caregivers who went to an emergency department after a motor vehicle collision in 2004 or 2005.”

HealthDay (11/8, Preidt) reports the study also revealed “a strong link between parents having PTSD and their children having it as well, even years after the traumatic event.” The findings were published online Nov. 8 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “PTSD can persist for years in kids, but parents may not see it,”Kathryn Doyle, Reuters, November 8, 2016.

The New York Times (11/8, D5, Brody, Subscription Publication) reports that a study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry “reveals just how lethal suicide attempts, as a risk factor for completed suicide, are.” After tracking “all first suicide attempts in one county in Minnesota that occurred between January 1986 and December 2007 and” then recording “all the deaths by suicide for up to 25 years thereafter,” researchers found that “the fatality rate among suicide attempters was nearly 59 percent higher than had been previously reported.” The study also found that “the odds of successfully committing suicide are 140 times greater when a gun is used than for any other method.” The authors of an accompanying editorial observed that gun “availability should be restricted through such measures as ‘legal restrictions regarding permission to purchase firearms, waiting periods, safe storage, background checks and registration guidelines.’”

Related Links:

— “After a Suicide Attempt, the Risk of Another Try,”Jane E. Brody, The New York Times, November 8, 2016.

Reuters (11/7, Rapaport) reports on a study published online in Pediatrics finding that state laws requiring schools to help students return to school after a concussion fail to state what sort of help should be given and do not result in the students receiving sufficient help. Illinois alone has a law setting standards for aid, following guidelines developed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study only looked at state laws and did not examine school policies or practices or the experiences of individual students.

HealthDay (11/7, Norton) reports that just eight states have laws regarding students returning to the classroom. The laws do not require any training for teachers, nor do they declare who is responsible for ensuring that the students are helped to return to studies.

MedPage Today (11/7, Basen) reports lead author Monica Vavilala, MD, of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center in Seattle, and colleagues wrote that no state law “provided guidance on support of students with persistent postconcussive symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “‘Return-to-Learn’ laws may not help students after concussions,”Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, November 7, 2016.