On the front of its Marketplace section, the Wall Street Journal (1/6, B1, Walker, Subscription Publication) reports on new technology, including smartphone apps and software designed to analyze voices to help treat people with mental health disorders or to determine when depression may be interfering with treatment compliance for another medical condition, such as diabetes or heart disease. Recently, the National Institutes of Health awarded investigators at the Harvard School of Public Health some $2.42 million for the development of an app that will help track patterns of sleep in people with mental health issues.

Related Links:

— “Can a Smartphone Tell if You’re Depressed?,” Joseph Walker, Wall Street Journal, January, 2015. (Subscription required)

The AP (1/5) reported that psychiatry professor Anthony Tobia, MD is using a “Psy-feld” teaching tool to instruct medical students at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University about psychiatric disorders. Using the television series Seinfeld, “Tobia has created a database of teaching points from all the show’s episodes.” Medical students in their third and fourth years “are assigned to watch two episodes a week and then gather to discuss the psychopathology demonstrated on each.”

The Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger (1/2, Clark) reported that the premise behind “Psy-feld” is that “students have an ‘aha’ moment, the kind that doesn’t come from a PowerPoint presentation, said Tom Draschil, one of the psychiatric department’s chief residents.” Dr. Draschil explained that “the funnier a program is, the more teaching points it has for psychiatry.”

Related Links:

— “AT MED SCHOOL, ‘SEINFELD’ ABOUT MORE THAN NOTHING,” Associated Press, January 2, 2015.

Reuters (1/3, Seaman) reports that a JAMA Psychiatry study researchers found that US teens say they have easy access to guns even if they have a risk of suicide or known mental health problems. In the study, 41 percent of teens in general stated that they had easy access to guns, the same percentage of teens with a history of suicide attempts or mental illness that reported having easy access to guns. According to Reuters, the study collected data during a three-year period from 2001-2004 and involved 10,123 US teens between 13 and 18 years old. The Fox News (1/4) website also covered the story.

Related Links:

— “U.S. teens have same firearm access regardless of suicide risk,” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, January 2, 2015.

The AP (1/5, Crary) reports that “widows, widowers, parents, siblings and children are sharing accounts of their grief as part of the largest study ever of America’s military families as they go through bereavement.” The Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Maryland-based Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences is conducting the study, which includes “about 2,000 people” and has gone on for about three years. Those who can participate are members of the “families of the more than 19,000 service members from all branches of the military who have died on active duty since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, regardless of whether the death resulted from combat, accident, illness, suicide or other causes.”

Related Links:

— “MAJOR STUDY OF BEREAVED MILITARY FAMILIES UNDERWAY,” David Crary, Associated Press, January 4, 2015.

The AP (1/4, O’Dell) reports that advocates for civil liberties and mental health issues “are urging Gov. Terry McAuliffe [D-VA] to intervene in the case of a Virginia inmate with autism who faces trial Wednesday for allegedly assaulting a correctional officer.” Attorneys and supporters of Reginald “Neli” Latson maintain that “he needs treatment, not punishment, for intellectual disabilities that they say have caused his three clashes with law enforcement since 2010.” The governor has been asked “to grant conditional clemency so Latson can be moved to a secure treatment facility in Florida that has agreed to accept him.”

Related Links:

— “MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATES SEEK RELIEF FOR AUTISTIC VA. INMATE,” Larry O’Dell, Associated Press, January 4, 2015.

The Washington Post (1/1, Kunkle) reported that a brochure developed using research from the Administration for Community Living, the NIH, and CDC “pulls together resources for maintaining one’s cognitive health.” The brochure, “Brain Health: You Can Make a Difference,” is part of a campaign that focuses on a holistic approach to managing personal health.

National Association of Area Agencies on Aging Chief Executive Sandy Markwood said of the initiative, “what we looked at are what are the practical things you can do to positively impact that. … No matter what age we are, but particularly as you’re growing older, these are things that often get discounted, but quite the contrary, are things people should focus on.”

Related Links:

— “How to keep your brain healthy in 2015 and beyond,” Fredrick Kunkle, Washington Post, December 31, 2014.

USA Today (1/1, Szabo) ran, as part of its “The Cost of Not Caring” series, a long-form version of its report on new programs intended to help young people with schizophrenia successfully cope with a psychotic break and prevent further decline. Thomas Insel, MD, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said “first episode” programs “aim to change the trajectory of schizophrenia from one of tragic decline to one of a chronic but manageable condition.”

He added that studies “suggest that early intervention can halt the deterioration so often seen in schizophrenia, allowing young people to get their lives back on track after their first full break with reality.” The National Institutes of Health is “testing early intervention through a major study called RAISE, or Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode. The study has generated enormous excitement across the mental health world, even before its results have been released.”

Related Links:

— “Early intervention could change nature of schizophrenia,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, December 31, 2014.

Health Data Management (12/31, Slabodkin) reports that FDA has approved an app for the US military, called the Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA), which is meant to “help clinicians diagnose cases of traumatic brain injury in as little as five minutes in almost any setting, including forward-deployed combat environments.” DANA functions like a video game in that “service members perform a series of baseline on-screen exercises during which both their speed and accuracy are recorded.” Some factors that “may affect reaction time include concussion, dementia, post-traumatic stress, depression and fatigue.”

Related Links:

— “FDA Approves Defense Mobile App for Traumatic Brain Injuries,” Greg Slabodkin, Health Data Management, December 30, 2014.

HealthDay (12/31, Mundell) reports that according to a study published online Dec. 30 in JAMA Psychiatry, a parent’s history of attempting suicide appears to raise “the odds of a suicide attempt in their child…fivefold.” After following some “700 young and adult-aged children (ages ranged from 10 to 50) of 334 parents with mood disorders, such as depression or bipolar disorder,” researchers discovered that “a history of suicide attempts in a child was strongly associated with a similar history in that child’s parent – even after they accounted for any mood disorder that might be shared by both parent and child.”

Related Links:

— “Parent’s Suicide Attempt Makes Child’s Much More Likely: Study,” E.J. Mundell, HealthDay, December 30, 2014.

Reuters (12/30) reports that according to a review published online Dec. 29 in the journal Pediatrics, further investigation is needed into how interactive and mobile media are affecting infants, toddlers, and preschool children in the areas of language acquisition, learning, interpersonal skills and behavior. Currently, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children younger than two should avoid entertainment media and television. The authors of the review made the suggestion that physicians speak to parents about how their little ones are using interactive media and take part in media use with their youngsters.

Related Links:

— “Guidance and research on mobile, interactive media for kids needed,” Reuters, December 30, 2014.