On its front page, the Wall Street Journal (1/15, A1, Ansberry, Subscription Publication) reports that 1.5 million people in the US simultaneously are dealing with a dual diagnosis of developmental disability and mental illness. What happens is that individuals with both conditions are rarely given proper, coordinated treatment and services. In the majority of states, counties oversee mental health treatment, whereas services developmental disability are coordinated by state governments. Ohio, however, is an exception, offering comprehensive, coordinated services to individuals with dual diagnoses.

Related Links:

— “Splintered System Often Fails Mentally Ill With Low IQs, “Clare Ansberry, The Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2014.

HealthDay (1/15, Preidt) reports that, according to a study published in the January issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry, “daughters exposed to their mother’s stress hormones in the womb may be more likely to become nicotine-dependent later in life.” After analyzing “data from 649 women and 437 men who were followed for 40 years after being born to mothers whose hormone levels and smoking status were recorded during pregnancy,” researchers found that “exposure to elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the womb and having a mother who smoked during pregnancy was linked to an increased likelihood that daughters, but not sons, would be at raised risk for nicotine dependence as adults.”

Related Links:

— “Smoking in Pregnancy Tied to Later Nicotine Addiction in Daughters, HealthDay , January 14, 2014.

HealthDay (1/15, Preidt) reports that according to studies published online in the journal Psychology of Men & Masculinity, adolescent “boys who think they’re too skinny are at increased risk for depression, and they’re more likely to be bullied and use steroids.” In the first “study, researchers analyzed data gathered from more than 2,100 boys who were about 16 years old in 1996 and followed for 13 years,” while in the second, investigators “analyzed data from a 2009 survey of more than 8,000 boys in grades nine through 12 across the United States.”

Related Links:

— “Teen Boys Who Think They’re Skinny May Be at Higher Risk for Depression, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, January 14, 2014.

The Boston Globe (1/13, Lazar) reports on a “first-of-its kind study” scheduled for release today that finds positive effects to “brain training drills” lasting up to ten years. The study analyzed data from “roughly 2,800 participants” who were given sessions of brain training, 74% of whom showed continuing improvement at the decade mark.

Reuters (1/13, Steenhuysen) reports that the results are slated for publication in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Related Links:

— “Study finds long-lasting results from brain exercises, “Kay Lazar, The Boston Globe, January 13, 2014.

Several publications, both large circulation newspapers and niche sources, reported over the weekend on Federal approval of Maryland’s initiative to control hospital costs.

In an article entitled “Maryland Experiments With Capping Hospital Spending,” the Wall Street Journal (1/10, Dooren, Schatz, Subscription Publication) reported that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a waiver to Maryland to set its own Medicare rates for hospitals. Maryland agreed to save $330 million in Medicare cost savings over five years. The plan waiver was supported by the state’s major hospitals and insurance companies.

The Washington Post (1/10, Kliff) “Wonkblog” noted that, unlike other states, “in Maryland, all customers — whether a private insurance plan, public program or uninsured patient — pay the same price.” A form of the program started in the 1970s and has generated substantial savings for the state.

Related Links:

— “Maryland Experiments With Capping Hospital Spending, “Jennifer Corbett, The Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2014.

The AP (1/11, Alonso-Zaldivar) reports that that Obama Administration proposed removing from Medicare “special protections that guarantee seniors access to a wide selection of three types of drugs.” The medications, “antidepressants, antipsychotics and drugs that suppress the immune system to prevent the rejection of a transplanted organs,” have enjoyed “protected” status, but removing that status could save millions of dollars per year and help prevent the overprescribing of antipsychotics in senior care facilities. Critics are concerned that the rule, published in Friday’s Federal Register, could negatively affect patient care. Medscape (1/13) also reports.

The Time (1/11, Sifferlin) “Healthland” blog reported that a study published online Jan. 11 in the Journal of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics “found that among parents of 600 children between ages two and five with autism (453) and developmental delays (125), 40% reported using homeopathic remedies, mind-body medicine, melatonin and probiotics in an attempt to relieve some of their children’s symptoms and even prevent some of the condition’s behavioral problems from progressing.”

Medscape (1/12, Roach) reported that the study authors noted that “8.6% of the children with an autism spectrum disorder received complementary treatments that are invasive, disproven, or potentially unsafe (e.g., chelation, intravenous immunoglobulin, antifungal drugs, and vitamin B12 injections).” The study received funding from the National Institutes of Health, among others.

Related Links:

— “Autism and Alternative Medicine: Getting Real About the Benefits and Risks, “Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, January 11, 2014.

The MedPage Today (1/10, Gever) “Striking a Nerve” blog reports that certain anti-seizure medications are safer for the developing fetus during pregnancy than others, “with valproate probably the biggest no-no,” as evidenced by a studypublished online in the journal Neurology that compared language and cognitive development of youngsters born to mothers with epilepsy who took valproate, levetiracetam, or no anti-seizure medication at all during pregnancy. Kids whose moms took valproate during pregnancy had an increased risk for such problems, compared to kids whose moms took levetiracetam or no medication at all. Currently, because there is no set “algorithm for deciding which [medication] is best for a given patient,” the “decision still comes down to the individual clinician’s judgment and the patient’s tolerance for risk to herself and her unborn child.”

Related Links:

— “Striking a Nerve: Epilepsy Drugs in Pregnancy, “John Gever, MedPage Today, January 9, 2014.

The New York Times (1/10, Carrns, Subscription Publication) “Your Money” column reports that the Affordable Care Act and rules to fully implement the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 are expected to provide improvements and greater availability of “insurance coverage for mental conditions and addictions.” The ACA “includes mental health care and substance abuse treatment among its 10 ‘essential’ benefits, which means plans sold on the public health care exchanges must include coverage.” What’s more, “the parity law says that when health insurance plans provide coverage for mental ailments, it must be comparable to coverage for physical ailments.”

Related Links:

— “Understanding New Rules That Widen Mental Health Coverage, “Ann Carrns , The New York Times, January 9, 2014.

In a front-page story, USA Today (1/10, A1, Zoroya) reports that according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, “young veterans just out of the service and receiving health care from the government committed suicide at nearly three times the rate of active-duty troops in recent years.” According to USA Today, “Veterans ages 18-24 enrolled in the VA’s health program killed themselves at a rate of 46 per 100,000 in 2009 and nearly 80 per 100,000 in 2011,” while “non-veterans of the same age had a suicide rate during 2009 and 2010…of about 20 per 100,000.”

Related Links:

— “Young vets’ suicide rate alarming, ” Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, January 9, 2014.