The New York Times (11/15, B4, Tugend, Subscription Publication) reported that some 43.7 million US adults “suffer from a mental, behavioral or emotional disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.” Many are in the workplace and may have a difficult time because of their disorder. Although “the Americans with Disabilities Act forbids companies from firing people with mental health conditions as long as they can do the ‘essential functions’ of the job as determined by the employer, people may not feel safe” disclosing a mental health disorder to their supervisors for fear of losing their jobs. Bosses may be unaware of ADA requirements or of company policies requiring schedule flexibility. The Times adds that “the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, part of the American Psychiatric Association… posts on its website case studies of companies that have introduced programs to address the issue.”

Related Links:

— “Deciding Whether to Disclose Mental Disorders to the Boss,” Alina Tugend, New York Times, November 14, 2014.

In The Hill (11/15) Congress Blog, former Surgeon General and Director of the CDC David Satcher, MD, wrote that people should be more frightened by Alzheimer’s disease than by Ebola. “While there is virtually no chance of contracting Ebola in the US right now, the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s or needing to care for someone with Alzheimer’s is staggering.” But, according to Dr. Satcher, “progress on Alzheimer’s is being held back by limited funding,” as evidenced by the fact that “for every $26,500 Medicare and Medicaid spend on Alzheimer’s care, the NIH spends only $100 on research.” Earlier this year in testimony before Congress, NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, said that Alzheimer’s research is “unfortunately limited by resources.”

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s is greater public health crisis than Ebola,” David Satcher, MD, The Hill, November 14, 2014.

Major newspapers, wire sources, Internet and consumer medical outlets cover the findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Youth Tobacco Survey revealing that 22.9 percent of high school students are currently using a tobacco product. The survey, published Nov. 13 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also found that 4.5 percent of high school students used e-cigarettes in the previous month in 2013, up from 2.8 percent in 2012 and 1.5 percent in 2011.

USA Today (11/14, Szabo) reports that nearly “12% of high-school kids and 3% of middle schoolers had tried” e-cigarettes “at least once.” USA Today explains that children “are experimenting with a variety of tobacco products beyond cigarettes — from cigars to hookahs, chewing tobacco and pipes.” In fact, almost 23 percent “of high-school students use some sort of tobacco product, according to the CDC.” For instance, nearly 12 percent of high-school students smoke cigars, up slightly from 2011, the paper adds.

Related Links:

— “E-cigarette use triples among high schoolers,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, November 13, 2014.

Roll Call (11/14, Jenks) reports the National Institute of Mental Health “has decided to update its strategic plan.” With the last plan having been formulated in 2008, “the institute has decided that there has been substantial advances in mental health care since then and a new plan is in order. The public can comment on the new draft, which sets research priorities for the next five years.”

Related Links:

— “NIH Forges a Mental Health Research Plan,” Paul Jenks, Roll Call, November 13, 2014.

The New York Times (11/14, Bakalar) “Well” blog reports that according to a study published Nov. 13 in the Journal of Critical Sleep Medicine, “37 percent of” 7,000 firefighters tested “screened positive for at least one sleep disorder, most for obstructive sleep apnea.” After controlling for confounding factors, investigators “found that compared with sound sleepers, those with a sleep disorder were about twice as likely to have a motor vehicle crash, to nod off while driving, and to have cardiovascular disease or diabetes.” In addition, the firefighters faced a threefold higher risk of having anxiety and depression.

Related Links:

— “Firefighter Accidents Are Linked to Sleep Problems,” Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times, November 13, 2014.

HealthDay (11/14, Haelle) reports that according to a survey sponsored by the group Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, approximately 20 percent of college students abuse “prescription stimulants.” In the online survey of some 1,600 young people ranging in age from 18 to 25, about a 1,000 of whom were attending college, young adults reported using the medicines “to help them stay awake, study or improve their work or school performance.” Notably, “the most commonly abused stimulants are those typically prescribed for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD)…the survey found.”

Related Links:

— “ADHD Stimulant Drug Abuse Common Among Young Adults: Survey,” Tara Haelle, HealthDay, November 13, 2014.

The Washington Post (11/13, Ingraham) “Wonkblog” reports that according to a study to appear in the journal Addiction, the more alcohol people consume, the more likely they are to injure themselves. After analyzing “surveys filled out by 13,000 people – hailing from 18 countries – who found themselves drunk and in the” emergency department because they hurt themselves, researchers found that an individual who has “consumed three drinks in the past six hours is about 4.6 times as likely to end up in the [ED] as someone who hasn’t drunk at all.” Just one drink approximately doubles a person’s chances of ending up having to go to the hospital.

Related Links:

— “Study: Having just one drink doubles your risk of getting injured,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post, November 12, 2014.

Medscape (11/13, Brooks) reports that according to a November 7 news release from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, “the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) has voiced concern over the ‘dangerous and discredited’ practice of conversion therapy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered (LGBT) youth in the” US. On November 11, “several CAT members asked US Department of State representatives why conversion therapy is still being practiced on LGBT youth after the practice was condemned by an array of major medical organizations and health and social welfare groups.” The American Psychiatric Association, for example, “states that ‘reparative’ and conversion therapies are ‘at odds’ with the scientific position of the APA, which has maintained, since 1973, that homosexuality per se is not a mental disorder.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (11/13, Carey, Subscription Publication) reports that a study published Wednesday by the journal JAMA Psychiatry says that suicides among soldiers with psychiatric conditions could be reduced “by using a new screening system that flags those at highest risk of taking their own lives, a new study suggests.” The computer program, which “rates more than 20 actuarial factors, including age at enlistment, history of violence, and prescription medication use,” would be the most rigorous suicide prediction model available, if it performs as expected in real-world settings.” It would “allow doctors to follow high-risk soldiers closely after discharge, and to take preventive measures.”

USA Today reports that for the study, investigators “examined the records of nearly 54,000 soldiers hospitalized from 2004 to 2009, less than 1% of the Army.” The researchers “found 12% of Army suicides occurred within a portion of the 54,000 — those who had been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder and released from hospital care within the previous 12 months.” When the investigators “delved even deeper in that group, they identified soldiers who were extremely prone to suicide, with a rate as high as 3,824 per 100,000.”

Related Links:

— “Risk Model Seen as Reducing Military Suicides,” Benedict Carey, New York Times, November 12, 2014.

The CBS Evening News (11/11, story 8, 2:50, Pelley) reported on Lieutenant Justin Fitch, a terminally ill veteran who is, according to CBS correspondent Mark Strassman, seeking to stop “military suicides through a group called ‘Carry The Fallen.’”

CBS News (11/12) reports on its website that “last Sunday, volunteers marched the entire Boston Marathon course, 26.2 miles, to raise money and awareness of the issue.”

Related Links:

— “Terminally ill vet’s final mission: Helping others choose life,” Mark Strassman, CBS News, November 11, 2014.