The New York Times (12/11, Reynolds) reports a recent study published in October’s BMJ indicates exercise can combat some of the leading causes of death in the US as effectively as many frequently prescribed drugs. It remains one of the few studies to compare “outcomes in terms of mortality or whether the intervention significantly lessens the chance that someone with a disease will die from it, despite treatment.” Results consistently demonstrated that drugs and exercise produced nearly exactly the same results.

Related Links:

— “Exercise as Potent Medicine, “Gretchen Reynolds, The New York Times, December 11, 2013.

Reuters (12/11, Bond) reports on a study appearing in Child Abuse & Neglect finding that “threatening or screaming at teenagers may put them at higher risk for depression and disruptive behaviors such as rule-breaking.” The study found that “mothers had to be both verbally and physically abusive to increase the kids’ risk for depression and behavior issues,” though fathers had to adopt only one of those behaviors “to produce lasting ill effects.” The study covered 239 “troubled adolescents” who completed surveys, along with parents who also completed surveys on their behavior. The authors concluded that physicians should ask adolescent patients about verbal as well as physical abuse.

Related Links:

— “Yelling, threatening parents harm teens’ mental health, “Allison Bond, Reuters, December 10, 2013.

Several high profile media outlets, including a network news broadcast and the websites for multiple national newspapers, cover Vice President Joe Biden’s announcement on the first anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings that the Federal government will provide an additional $100 million for mental health services. The funding comes from the Affordable Care Act and the Department of Agriculture.

NBC Nightly News reported that with Saturday marking the one-year anniversary of the Newtown school shooting, Vice President Biden met with families “who have been pleading” for more focus on the link between violence and mental illness. NBC added that Biden announced $100 million “to help community health centers across the country to establish and expand behavioral health services and to improve mental health access in rural areas.”

USA Today (12/10, Jayson) reports that, according to a study published online Dec. 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “six or more hours a day of exposure to media coverage” following “a traumatic event may” be harmful to mental health. Researchers found that prolonged media exposure following the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings was tied to “more acute stress than having been at or near the marathon.”

The Los Angeles Times (12/10, Healy) reports that researchers arrived at that conclusion after questioning some 4,675 Americans in the period two to four weeks after the bombings. People who took the Internet-based survey “were a representative sample of metropolitan Boston, New York City and the rest of the United States.” After adjusting for confounding factors, investigators “found that respondents with a prior history of mental health problems and those who had watched six or more hours of daily media coverage of the events surrounding the bombings were most likely to report high acute-stress symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “Acute stress trauma can result from exposure via media, “Sharon Jayson, USA Today, December 09, 2013.

Andrew Solomon, the author of “Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity,” wrote in a New York Times (12/8, Subscription Publication) op-ed that because of a section of US immigration law, some people – including a Canadian woman trying to take a cruise – have been prevented from entering the US because of their history of getting treatment for mental illness. Solomon finds this “regressive” and he says such border snares could keep people from getting appropriate mental healthcare. People with treatment pose fewer threats, he writes, urging President Obama “to speak out against” Section 212 of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act “to put to rest the idea that people with mental health conditions who pose no danger are unwelcome in our country.”

Related Links:

— “Shameful Profiling of the Mentally Ill, “Andrew Solomon, The New York Times, December 13, 2013.

For the October 2013 World Mental Health Day, the World Health Organization released a video created in collaboration with writer and illustrator Matthew Johnstone. The video visualizes depression as a big black dog and goes through the trials overcoming it. You can view the video on Youtube here:

From the video description:

“At its worst, depression can be a frightening, debilitating condition. Millions of people around the world live with depression. Many of these individuals and their families are afraid to talk about their struggles, and don’t know where to turn for help. However, depression is largely preventable and treatable. Recognizing depression and seeking help is the first and most critical towards recovery.”

Further information and news about World Mental Health Day can be found here: http://www.who.int/mental_health/world-mental-health-day/en/

Medwire (11/21, McDermid) reports that, according to a study published online Nov. 13 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, “the risk for violence after the release of prisoners with sexual or violent offenses is increased if they have untreated psychosis.” The study of “742 former prisoners with no psychosis, 94 with schizophrenia, 102 with drug-induced psychosis, and 29 with delusional disorder” revealed that “prisoners with untreated schizophrenia were a significant 3.43 times more likely than those without psychosis to commit a violent re-offense.”

Related Links:

— “Treatment key to averting psychosis violence after prison release, “Eleanor McDermid, Medwire News, November 21, 2013.

Medwire (11/20, Piper) reports that, according to a review published online Nov. 13 in the journal Bipolar Disorders, “patients with bipolar disorder [BD] are more likely to be successfully employed if they have good cognitive function and a more benign course of illness.” The review examined 22 studies involving 6,301 patients.

Related Links:

— “Cognition and illness course predict bipolar employment, “Lucy Piper, Medwire News, November 20, 2013.

Bloomberg News (11/22, Kitamura) reports John Denninger, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, “is leading a five-year study on how the ancient practices affect genes and brain activity in the chronically stressed.” The article notes the significance of the study, saying that while “hundreds of studies have been” done about the mental health benefits of yoga and meditation, “they have tended to rely on blunt tools like participant questionnaires, as well as heart rate and blood pressure monitoring.” The piece says that “only recently have neuro-imaging and genomics technology used in Denninger’s latest studies” given scientists the ability to “measure physiological changes in greater detail.” The government-funded study may push more doctors to look for alternative solutions to stress-induced conditions, including hypertension and depression.

Related Links:

— “Harvard Yoga Scientists Find Proof of Meditation Benefit, “Makiko Kitamura, Bloomberg News, November 21, 2013.

On its website, Fox News (11/21, Grush) chronicled one woman’s “long struggle with factitious disorder – more commonly referred to as Munchausen syndrome.” Starting at age 13 and continuing for over 20 years, the woman went on “to feign more than 12 physical and mental illnesses – including extreme disorders like schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis and even epilepsy.” Eventually, the woman was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The piece noted that the woman, who is now getting her life back together, “presented her tale to members of the American Psychiatric Association during their annual conference.”

Related Links:

— “Addicted to illness: How one woman recovered from a 20 year struggle with Munchausen syndrome, “Loren Grush, Fox News, November 21, 2013.