The Fort Myers (FL) News-Press (8/18, Gluck) reported that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for the treatment of severe depression “has seen a resurgence at many US health centers in recent decades, experts say.” The procedure is not without controversy. Some patients who received the procedure in the past, as well as “anti-ECT groups, say it is little more than intentional brain damage.” Other patients cannot praise the treatment enough, and the procedure is endorsed by the US Surgeon General, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association. Researchers theorize that it works by enhancing certain beneficial brain chemicals or by “reducing ‘hyper-connectivity’ in the minds of severely depressed patients.” Most health insurers and Medicare cover ECT.

Related Links:

— “Despite controversial past, shock treatment sees resurgence, “Frank Gluck, The Fort Myers (FL) News-Press, August 18, 2013.

In a 2,700-word report, the Washington Post (8/18, McCrummen) profiles the workings of the mental health court that operates in Upper Marlboro in Maryland’s Prince George’s County, “one of a growing number of such courts.” The Post says the latest Federal data show more than half the inmates in jails and prisons suffer from signs of mental illness, and the court system is “adjusting to this reality” with about 300 specialized courts that try to match appropriate solutions from “a decentralized and often inadequate mental-health-care system” with people who often have “a tapestry of problems.” Partly because of the potential for violence, Judge Patrice E. Lewis often makes decisions that make “her pray she was right” in the Upper Marlboro court.

Related Links:

— “Pr. George’s mental health court aims to treat, rather than jail, defendants, “Stephanie McCrummen, The Washington Post, August 17, 2013.

On its “Federal Eye” blog, the Washington Post (8/17, Vogel) reported that, according to a study (pdf) conducted by the Naval Health Research Center and published in May in the journal BMC Psychiatry, “women who deploy to combat zones may be more susceptible to psychiatric disorders than men.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after analyzing data from surveys completed by 1,113 Marines having returned from deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan during the years 2007 and 2008.

PTSD Diagnosis No Barrier To Army Redeployment. The Washington Post (8/18, Sieff) reported that “a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder [PSTD] is not a barrier to being redeployed” by the US Army to Afghanistan. According to the Post, “the Army has knowingly redeployed soldiers with symptoms of PTSD” and “is now regularly embedding psychologists with units in the field.”

Related Links:

— “Do female combat vets face added mental health risks?, “Steve Vogel, The Washington Post, August 16, 2013.

USA Today (8/22, Zoroya) reports that, according to the results of a RAND study released yesterday, “researchers found no scientific proof supporting an Army idea to drop the word ‘disorder’ from the term post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] as a means of removing the stigma from the disease.” USA Today points out that “the Army asked the American Psychiatric Association to change the name in its official manual of mental illnesses,” claiming that soldiers would be more willing to seek treatment for PTSD if the word “disorder” were replaced instead by the words “stress” or “injury.” In 2011, the APA declined making that change.

Former Army Sergeant: PTSD Is Not A “Catchall” For All Behavior By Veterans. In an op-ed for the Washington Post (8/22, Van Reet), Brian Van Reet, a former Army sergeant who served in Baghdad from 2004 to 2005, writes that science is suggesting that “the link between war, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and self-harm is not what many expect.” According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “exposure to combat does not increase the likelihood that a service member will take his or her own life.” Reet argues that these findings “demonstrate the need for further examination of war’s effects on those who fight it.” Reet adds that PTSD “is a valuable concept but not if it is used as a catchall for the myriad ways that war, peace, genetics and institutions all shape the behavior of veterans.”

Related Links:

— “Dropping the D from PTSD won’t change stigma, study says, “Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, August 22, 2013.

USA Today (8/22, Jayson) reports in a related article that “even mental health professionals who specialize in gender identity say there is much about being transgender that is unclear,” therefore “classifying it for treatment purposes is challenging.” The piece quotes New York psychiatrist Jack Drescher, MD, who was a member of the American Psychiatric Association’s work group on gender identity working on revisions for the DSM-5. Dr. Drescher said, “This is the only mental disorder where the treatment is changing the body” to align a person’s physical characteristics so they match gender identity.

Related Links:

— “What ‘transgender’ means, and how society views it, “Sharon Jayson, USA Today, August 23, 2013.

The New York Times (8/23, A17, Huetteman, Stelter, Subscription Publication) reports that defense attorneys for Pvt. Bradley Manning brought up the fact that their client “is transgender during the sentencing phase of his court-martial, describing the emotional stress he endured while deployed in Iraq.” At the trial, “two psychiatrists testified about treating Private Manning for ‘gender identity disorder,’ a diagnosis for psychological discomfort with one’s sex that the American Psychiatric Association renamed ‘gender dysphoria’ last year.” Both “psychiatrists said that handling such a diagnosis in a combat zone, and at time when it was still against military law to be openly gay, would have put Private Manning under” enormous strain.

Related Links:

— “‘I Am a Female,’ Manning Announces, Asking Army for Hormone Therapy, “Emmarie Huetteman, The New York Times, August 22, 2013.

Medscape (8/21, Cassels) reports that, according to a study published online Aug. 17 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, maternal consumption of “‘junk food’ during pregnancy and in early childhood is linked to a significantly increased risk for poor mental health, including anxiety and depression, in very young children.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after having followed 23,020 mothers and their youngsters who were followed for five years. The study also found that “women who ate more unhealthy foods were significantly more likely to have children with more behavioral problems, such as tantrums and aggression.”

The NPR (8/20, Hensley) “Shots” blog reports that, according to a study published online in the journal PLoS One, individuals “who had taken LSD, psilocybin (the brain-bending chemical in magic mushrooms) or mescaline at any time in their lives were no more likely than those who hadn’t to wind up in mental health treatment or to have symptoms of mental illness.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after analyzing “survey data collected from more than 130,000 randomly selected Americans between 2001 and 2004.” The data came from the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Related Links:

— “Study Finds No Link Between Hallucinogens And Mental Problems, “Scott Hensley, NPR, August 20, 2013.

The Los Angeles Times (8/20, Mohan) “Science Now” blog reports that according to a study published online Aug. 19 in JAMA Pediatrics, “a second child is seven times more likely to be diagnosed with autism if an older sibling has the diagnosis.” Interestingly, “rates for maternal half-siblings suggested that a mother’s contribution to recurrence was stronger than that of the father,” a finding suggesting that “factors unique to the mother and her pregnancy may contribute to autism.”

Related Links:

— “Autism is shared among siblings, study finds, “Geoffrey Mohan, Los Angeles Times, August 19, 2013.

The Los Angeles Times (8/19, Mohan) “Science Now” blog reported that, according to a study published Aug. 19 in the journal Psychological Science, the effects of bullying may be felt into “adulthood, when victims are far more likely to have emotional, behavioral, financial and health problems.” Even after adjusting for confounding factors, researchers found that individuals who “were both victim and perpetrator as schoolchildren fared the worst as adults: they were more than six times more likely to be diagnosed with a serious illness or psychiatric disorder” and to smoke on a regular basis.

On its website, CBS News (8/20, Castillo) points out that, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately “20 percent of US students in grades 9 through 12 were bullied at some point in 2011.” But bullying is not just confined to the classroom. A study published in the June issue of Pediatrics “showed that people who were bullied by their siblings may have more adult metal health problems like depression and anxiety than those who had been bullied by their peers.”

The Time (8/20, Sifferlin) “Healthland” blog points put that researchers “studied 1,420 children between the ages nine to 16 who reported being victims of bullying, acting as bullies, or both (bully-victims),” as well as a group of control children uninvolved in bullying. The youngsters “were questioned four to six times during the study, and when they were between 24 to 26 years old, they were evaluated on certain psychiatric measures, whether they engaged in risky or illegal behaviors, their wealth, and the status of their social relationships.”

Related Links:

— “Children bullied in school may have more problems as adults, “Geoffrey Mohan, Los Angeles Times, August 19, 2013.