Category Archives: In The News

Reforms To Mental Health System Needed, Says Psychiatry Resident.

In The Hill (8/2, Izenberg) “Congress Blog,” Jacob Izenberg, MD, a psychiatry resident in San Francisco and a member of the Committee of Interns and Residents, urges the Senate to pass the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. He says the bill will introduce “reforms that seek to expand access to acute psychiatric care while also bolstering community-based programs…that have a proven track record of reducing hospitalization and incarceration.”

Izenberg cites his own experiences in psychiatry resident training to argue that emergency departments “are not designed to deliver the humane care that…mental suffering necessitates.” The “staggering” cuts to mental health services are to blame for the lack of resources, pointing out that the US now has only “11.7 state psychiatric beds per 100,000 people, compared to 14 in 1850.”

Related Links:

— “Reforming our broken mental health system,” Jacob Izenberg, MD, The Hill, August 2, 2016.

More American High School Students Smoke Marijuana Than Binge Drink Alcohol

The Washington Post (8/1, Stein) covers a new report “from Project Know, a website that connects people to alcohol and drug addiction treatment resources,” that found more American high school students smoke pot than binge drink. The report examined data taken “from state and national agencies to determine drug usage rates in each state and the District.” The District of Columbia had the highest rate of marijuana use at 32.2 percent, but the lowest rate of binge drinking and prescription drug abuse at 12 and 7.3 percent, respectively.

Related Links:

— “More American high school students smoke pot than binge drink, report says,” Perry Stein, Washington Post, August 1, 2016.

15 Areas Of DNA Show Signs Of Harboring Variations Impacting Depression Risk

The AP (8/1, Ritter) reports, “In a key advance for the study of depression, a comprehensive scan of human DNA has turned up the apparent hiding places of more than a dozen genes linked to the disorder.” Investigators “identified 15 areas of the human DNA…that show signs of harboring genetic variations that affect risk of becoming depressed.”

The Washington Post (8/1, Cha) “To Your Health” blog reports that while “gene association studies…are published” frequently, “this is a particularly important one,” as “it’s the first large study on major depressive disorder in people of European descent, and it shows that the genes that may be involved in the condition correspond to those involved in the development of neurons in the brain.” The research, “published in Nature Genetics, involved an analysis of genetic variations of 75,607 people of European ancestry who self-reported having depression and 231,747 healthy controls.”

Related Links:

— “Large DNA study using 23andMe data finds 15 sites linked to depression,” Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post, August 1, 2016.

AMA chairwoman urges insurers to expand coverage for opioid addiction

Patrice A. Harris, MD, chairwoman of the American Medical Association, writes in a letter to the editor of the Hartford (CT) Courant (8/1) that the AMA concurs “with Aetna medical officer Dr. Mark Friedlander that we need to increase access to medication-assisted treatment for patients with substance use disorders.”

She says the AMA is also urging “Aetna, Cigna and all other payers in Connecticut to remove barriers to evidence-based care, including limits on physical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychiatric care and other multimodal therapies that may be appropriate.”

Harris adds that in order to effectively combat the opioid epidemic, “physicians must continue to play an active role in treating our patients using evidence-based care, and that also means insurance policies must provide our patients with the benefits, coverage and access necessary for that care.”

Related Links:

— “AMA: Insurers Must Broaden Opioid Addiction Coverage,” Patrice A. Harris, M.D., , August 1, 2016.

Seniors Living Alone Describe Health Very Good More Than Those Living With Others

Kaiser Health News (7/29, Bluth) reported a new study exploring the connection between older people’s health and their living arrangements published recently in the Journal of Applied Gerontology found that “people over 65 who live alone were more likely to describe their health as excellent or very good than were seniors who live with others.” The study’s results notwithstanding, the researchers said they were unable to draw any conclusion “about whether keeping a solitary household in old age leads to a longer life.”

Related Links:

— “Seniors Who Live Alone Likeliest To Rate Their Health Highly, Study Says,” Rachel Bluth, Kaiser Health News, July 29, 2016.

WPost Hails Maryland Plan For Mental Health Courts As An “Excellent Idea.”

In an editorial, the Washington Post (7/31) observed that the number of people with mental illnesses “in many detention facilities – local jails, especially – has been soaring, forcing the institutions into the role of treatment centers, for which they are unprepared.” To prevent strain on its jail and to stop incarcerating people with mental illness “who commit relatively minor crimes,” Montgomery County, MD “is moving swiftly to establish mental-health courts.” The goal “is to divert qualified defendants charged with nonviolent crimes…from jail to supervised treatment regimens.” The Post hailed the plan as an “excellent idea.”

Related Links:

— “A step forward for mentally ill defendants,” Editorial Board, Washington Post, July 31, 2016.

Locked Wards Appear Not To Reduce Suicide Attempts, Unauthorized Absence

MedPage Today (7/29, Harris) reported, “Locked inpatient wards do not reduce suicide attempts or unauthorized absence among patients with mental illness,” researchers found after conducting “a 15-year observational study of approximately 145,000 cases.” The findings were published online July 28 in The Lancet Psychiatry. An accompanying commentary “agreed that ‘the authors are surely justified in concluding that locked doors do not seem to provide the anticipated protection.’”

Related Links:

— “Locked inpatient wards do not reduce suicide attempts,” Scott Harris, MedPage Today, July 29, 2016.

Insurers Accused Of Finding Ways To Avoid Covering Mental Health Conditions

Kaiser Health News (7/28, Dembosky) reports that some 43 million people in the US “suffer from depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions,” according to data from the Federal government, but more than 50 percent of those “who felt like they needed help last year, never got it.” Even those with insurance “complained of barriers to care.” The article says the 2008 Mental Health Parity Act and the Affordable Care Act were supposed to address this problem. Under the laws, insurers must provide comparable benefits for mental health and physical health conditions. Yet, “advocates say insurance companies are still finding ways to keep people who need care from getting it.”

Related Links:

— “Single Mom’s Search For Therapist Foiled By Insurance Companies,” April Dembosky, Kaiser Health News, July 28, 2016.

Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities To Receive $100 Million Medicare Raise Next Year

Modern Healthcare (7/28, Dickson, Subscription Publication) reports inpatient psychiatric facilities will see a 2.2 percent increase in Medicare reimbursement, a “$100 million raise” that exceeds the 1.5 percent or $80 million increase they received this year. According the most recent federal data available, Medicare payments to inpatient psychiatric facilities were estimated to be $4.4 billion in 2012, up from $3.9 billion in 2008. Facilities should expect an increase in Medicaid payments in 2017 “now that a 50-year ban on mental health institutions was successfully repealed earlier this year.”

Related Links:

— “Psych facilities get $100 million Medicare raise next year,” Virgil Dickson, Modern Healthcare, July 28, 2016.