The Chicago Tribune (1/9, Graham) reports that Medicaid expansion under the auspices of the Affordable Care Act may provide additional opportunities for “poor people struggling with mental illnesses.” However, the expansion in coverage causes concerns among some analysts that some people may still have difficulty accessing mental health professionals, whom the Tribune notes are often in short supply in disadvantaged areas.

Related Links:

— “Doors to treatment opening for poor people struggling with mental illnesses, “Judith Graham, The Chicago Tribune, January 9, 2014.

One major television network, several major US newspapers, and numerous online media sources cover a Vital Signs report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday showing that many Americans are drinking too much alcohol, even though they are not alcoholics, and that many of these individuals have never discussed their alcohol use with their physicians.

NBC Nightly News (1/7, story 8, 1:50, Williams) reported that the CDC has released a new report revealing that “many millions of Americans drink too much,” a problem rarely discussed with their physicians. NBC News chief medical Editor Nancy Snyderman, MD, explained, “At least 38 million people in the United States drink too much and most are not alcoholics.” Still, 75 percent of binge drinkers claim never to have had a discussion about their alcohol use with their physicians. CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, was shown saying that a brief interview with a physician “can result in a substantial reduction of problem drinking for a long period of time.”

Related Links:

— “January 2014 Vital Signs Issue: Alcohol Screening and Counseling,CDC Vital Signs, January, 2014.

HealthDay (1/8, Goodman) reports that according to a study published online Jan. 6 in the journal Pediatrics, “newer antidepressants all seem to carry about the same risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors” in children being treated for depression. After reviewing “medical records of nearly 37,000 school-aged kids who were enrolled in Tennessee’s Medicaid program between 1995 and 2006,” researchers found that approximately “one percent of kids who were treated with newer antidepressants – including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) – attempted suicide.” However, the suicide risk was increased in youngsters who were simultaneously taking multiple antidepressants.

Related Links:

— “Kids’ Suicide Risk Similar for All Newer Antidepressants: Study, “Brenda Goodman, HealthDay, January 7, 2014.

MedPage Today (1/8, Gever) reports that according to research partly sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health published in the Jan. 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, “smoking rates among Americans with mental illnesses didn’t budge from 2004 to 2011, a period during which rates in the rest of the population fell 14%.” In fact, “data from the federal Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) found that, among respondents with mental illnesses, 25.3% reported current smoking in 2004-2005 (95% CI 24.2%-26.3%), versus 24.9% in 2010-2011 (95% CI 23.8%-26.0%, P=0.50) after adjustments for other predictors of smoking such as income and education.” Meanwhile, over that same time frame, “adjusted smoking rates in other MEPS respondents declined from 19.2% (95% CI 18.7%-19.7%) to 16.5% (95% CI 16.0%-17.0%, P<0.001),” the study found. Psychiatric News (1/8) also covers the story. Related Links:

— “Smoking Rates Still High Among the Mentally Ill, “John Gever, MedPage Today, January 7, 2014.

The Washington Times (1/8, Sherfinski) reports that the Obama Administration is considering “weighing whether people deemed mentally ill as minors should be barred from getting guns as adults.” On Jan. 7, the Department of Justice, “which is trying to bolster the national background check system, asked the public to comment on whether information about mental illnesses of minors should be included in the databases.” Yesterday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also “published a proposed rule…to try to make it easier to disclose peoples’ identities to the” National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Related Links:

— “Mental illness in youth could prevent gun purchases in adulthood, ” David Sherfinski, The Washington Times, January 7, 2014.

The Washington Post (1/7, Joyce) “On Parenting” blog reports that a study appearing in the journal Psychological Science has determined that “heaping praise on a child with low self-esteem only does more damage,” and may cause them to shrink from new challenges. One experiment “found adults gave inflated praise to children with low self-esteem twice as often as they did to more confident children.” Another study found a group of children were more likely to seek out difficult tasks if they had high self-esteem, whereas children with low self-esteem refrained from “taking on bigger challenges” in an effort not to avoid being a disappointment.

Related Links:

— “Stop heaping praise on your kids., “Marvin Joseph, The Washington Post, January 6, 2014.

Medscape (1/7, Laidman) reports that according to a study (1/1) published online Jan. 6 in the journal Pediatrics, “teaching caregivers about normal infant sleeping and crying patterns and providing them with information on infant settling techniques improved maternal depression scores.” The study involved 770 families of 781 babies. The intervention began about a month after birth, when some of the families were “given a booklet and a DVD that covered normal sleep and crying patterns, techniques for settling infants, information on possible medical causes of crying, and parent self-care advice.” The information was reinforced twice more at the eight-week and 13-week marks. Notably, at “six months, caregivers in the intervention group were less likely to score higher than 9 on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, with 7.9% scoring higher than 9 in the intervention group vs 12.9% in the control cohort (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 0.57; 95% CI, 0.34 – 0.94; P = .03).”

The Los Angeles Times (1/7, MacVean) “Science Now” blog reports that according to a review (1/7) published online Jan. 6 in JAMA Internal Medicine, “mindfulness meditation can help ease anxiety, depression and pain.” The review did not find much evidence, however, that “meditation helped other conditions including substance abuse or sleep and attention problems.”

The Wall Street Journal (1/7, D2, Gellman, Subscription Publication) reports that researchers arrived at those conclusions after examining data from 47 randomized clinical studies involving more than 3,500 participants.

Related Links:

— “Meditation can help with anxiety, pain, depression, study says, “Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times, January 6, 2014.

Bloomberg News (1/5, Kearns) reports “falling stocks get people worried sick,” noting that a “one-day drop in the stock around 1.5 percent is followed by about a 0.26 percent increase in hospital admissions on average over the next two days,” citing a March 2013 study by Joseph Engelberg and Christopher Parsons, associate professors of finance at the University of California at San Diego. Engelberg, who presented the study at the American Economic Association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia, said “It’s a very straightforward result.” The article says “the results were based on almost” 30 years of daily admission data for California hospitals. In fact, hospital admissions “rise on days when shares fall,” and “people are hospitalized disproportionately for mental conditions.”

Related Links:

— “Stocks Worry Investors Sick as Losses Spur More Hospital Visits, “Jeff Kearns, Bloomberg News, January 5, 2014.

USA Today (1/6, Healy) reports that according to a study published online Jan. 6 in the journal Pediatrics, allowing kids and teens to rest their brains following a concussion may lead to a faster recovery. The study, which involved 335 young people ranging in age from eight to 23, revealed that “those reporting the greatest levels of cognitive activity (including homework, playing video games, doing crossword puzzles, text messaging and online activities) after a concussion took the longest to fully recover from their symptoms – approximately 100 days on average, compared to approximately 20 to 50 days for patients reporting lesser levels of activity.”

Related Links:

— “Evidence shows cognitive rest aids concussion recovery, “Michelle Healy, USA Today, January 6, 2014.