Scientific American (5/13, Upsori) reports that China is facing a public health crisis as the number of elderly people with dementia increases. The country already “has more than nine million people with some form of dementia and more cases of Alzheimer’s disease than any other country, according to a 2013 paper in The Lancet,” the authors of which “dubbed dementia ‘the single largest challenge to health and social care systems’ in China.”

The article goes on to interview psychiatrist Michael Phillips, MD, MA, MPH, who “has dual appointments at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and the Collaborative Center for Global Mental Health at Emory University.” At the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, Dr. Phillips described the challenges China faces as it deals with a growing population of aging people.

Related Links:

— “Health Care Crisis Looms as China Faces Elderly Dementia Upsurge,” Sandra Upson, Scientific American, May 12, 2014.

The Military Times (5/9, Kime) reported that an understanding of what veterans “have experienced during their time in service is vital to good patient care, military officials said recently in a seminar at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.” Now, even though “online short courses are available that cover the obvious — rank, military occupational specialties, histories and traditions — the Pentagon is gearing up to promote a new eight-hour course for health care [professionals] to gain a deeper understanding of military culture.” For example, the course called “‘Military Culture: Core Competencies for Health Care Providers’ covers four subjects: health care provider beliefs and biases; military definitions, language and culture; military functions; and the role of military ethos in health behavior.”

Related Links:

— “Building cultural bridges between doctors, troops,” Patricia Kime , Military Times, May 9, 2014.

HealthDay (5/10, Preidt) reported that according to a study published May 7 in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, “premature menopause may increase a woman’s risk of mental decline later in life.” The study of some 4,800 women revealed that, “compared to those who began menopause after age 50, women with premature menopause were 40 percent more likely to do poorly on verbal and visual memory tests.”

In addition, they “had a 35 percent higher risk of decline in psychomotor speed (coordination between the brain and the muscles that brings about movement) and overall mental function.” The study authors defined premature menopause as occurring around age 40.

Related Links:

— “Premature Menopause May Affect Women’s Brains,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, May 9, 2014.

NBC Nightly News (5/8, story 10, 0:40, Williams) reported that research suggests that “being angry, having frequent arguments with spouses or partners or relatives or neighbors may boost the risk of death from any cause and especially for those in middle age.”

USA Today (5/9, Painter) reports that for the study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, investigators “asked nearly 10,000 men and women ages 36 to 52 how often they ‘experience conflict’ with partners, children, other family members, friends and neighbors.” The researchers “also asked about worries and demands in those relationships.” The investigators “checked death records 11 years later and found that frequent fighters were two to three times more likely than their more peaceable peers to be dead already – even if their fights were mostly with neighbors, not friends or family.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Frequent fighters more likely to die in mid-life,” Kim Painter, USA Today, May 8, 2014.

In its “Shots” blog and on its “All Things Considered” program, NPR (5/9, Cohen) reports that 18 of 107 police officers in Fairfield, CT, have been “specifically trained to respond to mental health calls.” The officers are part of a mental-health crisis intervention program implemented in 2011. Across the US, only about 2,700 such programs exist, even though there are some 18,000 US law enforcement jurisdictions. On May 7, Connecticut legislators approved a measure “ensuring that all police in the state can get some kind of” mental-health crisis intervention training.

Related Links:

— “Mental Health 101: Program Helps Police Intervene In Crises,” Michael Cohen, National Public Radio, May 8, 2014.

In continuing coverage, USA Today (5/9, Szabo) reports that last “December, Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., introduced the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.” This past Tuesday, however, Rep. Ron Barber, D-AZ, “introduced his own, more limited bill, supported by a handful of Democrats, called the Strengthening Mental Health in Our Communities Act of 2014.” Rep. Murphy’s bill is considered to be “more sweeping” than the competing Barber bill. Meanwhile, some advocates for people with mental illnesses are concerned that partisanship could sink the chances of passing any mental health reform legislation, while others believe both measures could provide a compromise framework.

In her “Potomac Watch” opinion column in the Wall Street Journal (5/9, A13, Subscription Publication), Kimberly A. Strassel excoriates the Barber bill as an exercise in Democratic partisanship at the expense of people with severe mental illnesses.

Related Links:

— “Congressmen introduce competing mental health bills,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, May 8, 2014.

Medscape (5/9, Cassels) reports that according to research presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, “cannabis use in college students with psychiatric disorders is high and appears to have a significantly greater negative impact on function in this population.” Researchers, after conducting “a cross-sectional study from the Young Adult Behavioral Health Program at Rhode Island Hospital, which receives psychiatric outpatient referrals from eight colleges in the state,” discovered that nearly “25% of college students being treated for a mental illness also abused cannabis, which was linked to significant functional impairment and a greater likelihood of medical leave from school compared with their counterparts who used cannabis but did not have a mental illness.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (5/8, Saker) “Well” blog reports that over the past three years, psychologist Linda Crane, of the College of Mount St. Joseph, along with “fellow Mount St. Joseph psychologist, Tracy McDonough, have built the Schizophrenia Oral History Project,” the first such project “to focus on schizophrenia, they say.” The two psychologists have “so far…recruited two dozen people to sit down with them and a voice recorder, asking their ‘narrators’ simply: What’s it like to be you?”

Related Links:

— “Stories as a Window Into Schizophrenia,” Anne Saker, New York Times, May 8, 2014.

The Wall Street Journal (5/8, A6, Wang, Subscription Publication) reports that according to a study published online May 8 in The Lancet, people with severe mental illnesses appear to be far less likely to commit violent crimes if they are on antipsychotics.

The Los Angeles Times (5/8, Healy) reports that “among the study’s 82,647 subjects–all of them prescribed an antipsychotic or mood-stabilizing drug at some point between 2006 and 2009–routinely taking an antipsychotic drug was linked to a 29% reduced probability of being convicted of a drug-related charge, a 22% decline in convictions for any crime, and a 26% reduction in the likelihood of arrest on suspicion of having committed a violent crime.”

Related Links:

— “Medications Cut Violence Among Mentally Ill in Study,” Shirley S. Wang, Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2014.

The Congressional Quarterly (5/7, Young, Subscription Publication) reports that on Tuesday, “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urged an end to the stigma that often is attached to seeking treatment for psychiatric conditions.” Sebelius remarked, “We need to get to a place in this country where everyone feels comfortable accessing treatment without the fear of getting judged, to a place where anyone feels as comfortable saying that they are going for counseling as they are for a flu shot.” The piece notes that Sebelius “was among the speakers at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day.”

Related Links:

— Congressional Quarterly (requires login and subscription)