Reuters (6/9, Cohen) reports that about one in nine youngsters in foster care in the United States are being given antipsychotics. What’s more, about 75% of the kids prescribed antipsychotics have not undergone testing to assess their risk for diabetes. The findings study were published online June 6 in Health Affairs.
Related Links:
— “Drugs for schizophrenics regularly dispensed to foster kids,” Ronnie Cohen, Reuters, June 9, 2016.
The CBS Evening News (6/9, story 9, 0:25, Pelley) reported, “Today, the Federal Aviation Administration said it will not require psychological testing for airline pilots.”
NBC Nightly News (6/9, story 10, 0:25, Holt) reported, “Instead, the agency said it will enhance training for medical examiners who test pilots being hired and expand mental health assistance for pilots. The issue came into focus after the pilot of a Germanwings flight intentionally crashed into the Alps last year, killing 150 people.”
USA Today (6/9, Jansen) reports that on Thursday, the US Federal Aviation Administration “announced steps…to encourage pilots with mental health problems to seek treatment.” The agency, however, will not “initiate psychological testing for pilots or change rules on locked cockpit doors that were toughened after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.” The goal of the FAA’s action is “to break down resistance to seeking treatment because pilots can be grounded for certain medical problems or medications.” Next week, “the American Medical Association will debate….different approaches to mental health testing…said” Michael Berry, MD, MS, FAA’s deputy federal air surgeon.
Related Links:
— “FAA encourages pilots to seek mental health treatment,” Bart Jansen, USA Today, June 9, 2016.
In a opinion piece for Forbes (6/8), psychiatrist Sally Satel, MD, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, makes the case for a clear “distinction between mental health, mental illness, and severe mental illness.” Such a distinction “is crucial, because it leads us to different clinical and policy prescriptions,” Dr. Satel explains.
She cites as problematic that “the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is geared toward the mildly to moderately ill at the expense of the more seriously debilitated.” Dr. Satel concludes that instead of “focusing on combating homelessness, the crying need for more hospital beds, or reducing incarceration among people with serious mental illness,” SAMSHA “concentrates federal and state efforts on delivering amorphous ‘behavioral health’ to everyone else.”
Related Links:
— “Mental Health Reform Desperately Needed To Pass House And Senate,” Sally Satel, Forbes, June 8, 2016.
The AP (6/8, Cheng) reports, “Scientists say most antidepressants don’t work for children or teenagers with major depression, some may be unsafe, and the quality of evidence about these” medicines “is so bad the researchers cannot be sure if any are truly effective or safe.”
TIME (6/8, Park) reports that in order to find out “how effective” antidepressants “are in treating depression among younger people,” researchers from Oxford University “conducted an analysis of 34 trials of antidepressants involving more than 5,000 children or teens taking 14 different antidepressants.” In a meta-analysis published online June 8 in The Lancet, investigators found that “ratings of the depression before and after taking the medications did not change significantly.” Just one medication, fluoxetine, which is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for children and adolescents, “improved their depression.”
Related Links:
— “Teen Depression Treatment Is an Increasingly Thorny Issue,” Alice Park, Time, June 8, 2016.
Reuters (6/7, Taylor) reports that about a third of children between the ages of three and four growing up in developing countries “are failing to meet basic mental development milestones, which could adversely affect their health, success in adulthood, and education levels,” research conducted by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Grand Challenges Canada. Researchers arrived at this conclusion after analyzing data from UNICEF and the US Agency for International Development.
Related Links:
— “A third of children in poor nations fail to meet mental development milestones: research,” Lin Taylor, Reuters, June 7, 2016.
The Washington Post (6/7, Johnson) “Wonkblog” reports that even though “people with mental illness were more likely to be arrested for violent crime than the general population over the study period, from 2002 to 2011,” a study published in the June issue of Health Affairs “found they actually had a slightly lower arrest rate for gun-related crimes.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after following some “81,704 adults with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or depression who were receiving treatment through the public behavioral health systems in two Florida counties.”
The Atlantic (6/7, Beck) points out that the study also “emphasizes that suicide, not homicide, is the major public health problem for” people with mental health disorders who possess firearms.
Related Links:
— “The problem with trying to solve gun violence by going after the mentally ill,” Carolyn Y. Johnson, Washington Post, June 7, 2016.
In a greater than 2,300-word story, the Washington Post (6/7, Morse) reports that “in 25 states surveyed this year by the nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center based in Arlington, Va., 1,956 inmates were in local jails waiting for psychiatric hospital slots, leaving them in facilities that were not designed to meet their needs at what can be triple the cost of tending to other inmates.”
One factor behind long waits for psychiatric beds, “say corrections officials and the Treatment Advocacy Center, is that more people with profound mental illness are being arrested and booked into jails, while the number of beds at state hospitals is not growing.” Meanwhile, “patients in the hospitals…are more acutely sick and more dangerous than in years past, which extends their stays.”
Related Links:
— “Mental-health crisis ensnares inmates, judges, jailers and hospitals,” Dan Morse, Washington Post, June 7, 2016.
Kaiser Health News (6/6, Luthra) reports that in a study published online June 6 in Health Affairs, investigators “analyzed National Survey on Drug Use and Health data from 2005 to 2014 and predicted how many people were likely to face ‘serious psychological distress.’” Next, “they measured how many people received mental health care treatment – at least one inpatient, outpatient or pharmacy visit – during those years, comparing whites, Hispanics, blacks and Asians.” The study authors then found that since implementation of the Affordable Care Act, “whites were still the only racial group in which a majority of people with severe psychological distress get treatment.”
Related Links:
— “Factors Beyond Coverage Limit Mental Health Care Access,” Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News, June 6, 2016.
HealthDay (6/6, Mozes) reports that even though “suicide rates have been increasing among all active US Navy, Air Force and Army personnel…those in the Army appear to be most at risk,” research published online June 6 in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests. In fact, the “analysis of all US military suicides between 2005 and 2011 revealed that the suicide rate among Army members was roughly double that seen among the second highest risk group, the Marines.”
Related Links:
— “Among U.S. Military, Army Members Face Highest Suicide Risk,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, June 6, 2016.
BBC News (UK) (6/6) reports that a global review of 48 studies on anxiety conducted by researchers from the University of Cambridge estimated that “four out of every 100 people are affected by anxiety.” The report said “women, young people under 35 and those with health problems were particularly affected.” The findings were published in the journal Brain and Behavior.
The Guardian (UK) (6/5, Davis) reports that the research revealed “women are nearly twice as likely to experience anxiety as men.” Additionally, those “suffering from diseases including cancer, stroke and multiple sclerosis have a higher chance of experiencing symptoms of anxiety than healthy individuals.”
Related Links:
— “Women ‘nearly twice as likely to have anxiety’ as men,” BBC News, June 6, 2016.