USA Today (6/25, Park) reported on the nonprofit Crisis Text Line, “which has brought the 1-800 support line into the age of texting.” The text line offers 24-hour, seven-day-per-week trained counselors to “respond to people in need with SMS texts” that are both “anonymous and confidential.” USA Today also pointed out, “As suicide rates have climbed to alarming levels – the highest in three decades – public health and CDC researchers agree that suicide prevention needs more resources.” For example, “in 2013, more than 41,000 people in the” US “committed suicide, according to statistics collected by the US Department of Health and Human Services.”

Related Links:

— “Crisis Text Line takes suicide prevention into the age of texting,” Madison Park, , June 25, 2016.

HealthDay (6/24, Preidt) reports that National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism issued the results of a study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, showing that the rate of US adults who “reported nonmedical use of addictive opioids in 2012-2013” was more than 4 percent, more than double the less than 2 percent rate a decade earlier. National Institute on Drug Abuse director Dr. Nora Volkow said the rise in opioid misuse “poses a myriad of serious public health consequences.” NIAAA director George Koob cautioned against the “potent interaction of opioids with alcohol and other sedative-hypnotic drugs – an interaction that can be lethal.”

Related Links:

— “Opioid Update: Painkiller Misuse in U.S. Doubled in Decade,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, June 24, 2016.

The Boston Globe (6/23, Teitell) reports the CDC’s 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance study found that smoking, drinking, drug use, and sexual activity have decreased among teens. However, the study noted teens are engaging in risky behaviors including “the use of electronic vapor products,” a decline in condom use, and the use of “potentially addictive prescription drugs.” The spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies, Bill Albert says, overall, “today’s teens are ‘more cautious,’ than those of previous generations.”

Related Links:

— “Teens and risky behavior: Is it getting better or worse?,” Beth Teitell, Boston Globe, June 23, 2016.

The Hill (6/22, Sullivan) reports that on June 22, the office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced that “the House will vote on a long-delayed mental health reform bill in July,” HR 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, sponsored by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA). The vote comes “as the Senate is also looking for a path forward on a similar mental health bill from” Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Chris Murphy (D-CT).

Related Links:

— “House to vote on long-delayed mental health bill in July,” Peter Sullivan, The Hill, June 22, 2016.

In an editorial, Bloomberg View (6/21) asserts that the United States “is the only affluent country where the number of psychiatrists per capita fell from 2000 to 2011, even as it spends twice as much as others on health care.” While proposed mental health legislation pending on Capitol Hill is “welcome,” its passage “would still leave many Americans without the care they need.” Bloomberg View calls for “wider coverage by government health plans,” because “adequate spending on mental health would save other social and government costs down the road.”

Related Links:

— “Better Mental Health Care Is Worth the Expense,” Bloomberg View, June 21, 2016.

The Wall Street Journal (6/22, Hughes, Radnofsky, Subscription Publication) reports House Republicans are expected to unveil proposals for reforming the US health insurance system today, offering tax credits to pay for private insurance to replace the Affordable Care Act. The Journal says the broad plan leaves out many details, and is intended to give voters an idea of GOP healthcare policy ideas before this fall’s elections, with more specifics to come next year.

The AP (6/22, Werner) reports that the plan also “includes other largely familiar GOP ideas such as medical liability reform and expanding access to health savings accounts.” It “proposes putting $25 billion behind high-risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions and for others, and transforming the federal-state Medicaid program for the poor by turning it into state block grants or individual per-capita allotments to hold down spending.”

Related Links:

— “House Republicans Unveil Health-Insurance Proposal,” LOUISE RADNOFSKY and SIOBHAN HUGHES, Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2016.

HealthDay (6/21, Doheny) reports that research published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine suggests “years of working long hours…may take a steep toll on” one’s “health – and that’s especially true for women.” When investigators “compared men who worked more than 60 hours a week to those who worked 30 to 40, they found those who worked the longer hours had more than twice the risk of getting osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.” However, men “who worked 41 to 50 hours had a lower risk of heart disease, lung disease and depression.”

Medical Daily (6/21, Bushak) reports, however, that “women who averaged 60 hours or more in a work week had a threefold risk of diabetes, cancer, heart trouble, and arthritis.” The investigators “found that the risk for these chronic health issues began increasing when women worked more than 40 hours a week, but they got even worse if the average work week was over 50 hours.”

Related Links:

— “Long Work Hours May Hurt Your Health,” Kathleen Doheny, HealthDay, June 21, 2016.

MedPage Today (6/19, Freeman) reported that despite the provisions of the Affordable Care Act resulting in “much more insurance coverage than in the past, patients with behavioral health needs are not getting the treatment they need,” research suggests. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after analyzing “National Survey on Drug Use and Health data from 2005 to 2014 to estimate how many people were likely to face ‘serious psychological distress,’” then measuring “how many people actually received mental healthcare.” The study was published in the June issue of Health Affairs.

Related Links:

— “Access to Mental Health Services Still Lags,” Gregory A. Freeman, MedPage Today, June 19, 2016.

Medical Daily (6/19, Baulkman) reported that a RAND Corporation study published online June 14 in Addiction associates “marijuana use to lower academic functioning, less preparedness for school, poorer mental health, and more delinquent behavior.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after following some “6,500 adolescents over a seven-year period, between 2008 and 2015.”

Related Links:

— “Teen Marijuana And Alcohol Use May Hurt School Performance, Mental Health,” Jaleesa Baulkman, Medical Daily, June 19, 2016.

On its website, NBC News (6/18, Brown, Zhang, Schuppe) reported on the “dearth” of psychiatrists who can treat children. The lack of child psychiatrists in the US, already noted in an HHS report (pdf) issued 17 years ago, “is arguably getting worse,” as the country “grapples with an increase in depression and suicides among young people.” A sizeable number of child psychiatrists are now “approaching retirement,” and because “not enough medical students want to enter the field,” there is no one to replace them. Some states are offering medical student loan forgiveness to attract child psychiatrists, while other states “are encouraging the use of ‘telepsychiatry’ – visits by video conference – and by adopting ‘collaborative care’ programs that connect psychiatrists with primary care physicians.”

Related Links:

— “Decades Into Crisis, Kids Still Suffer From Shortage of Psychiatrists,” LIZ BROWN, SALLY ZHANG and JON SCHUPPE, NBC News, June 18, 2016.