Medscape (2/12, Lowry) reports that according to a review published in the February issue of Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, “despite recommendations made more than a decade ago by a US Surgeon General report, little progress has been made in developing a more racially diverse workforce to provide mental health services for racial and ethnic minorities.” For the study, researchers examined data from clinical trials and “data on the mental health workforce…from a work group comprising research staff from the American Psychiatric Association…as well as representatives of professional psychiatric nursing and staff from the National Institute of Mental Health,” among others. The review found that “with the exception of Asian-American psychiatrists, minority groups are still poorly represented among mental health professionals, with only very small improvements over time.”

Related Links:

— “Progress in Improving Mental Health Services for Racial-Ethnic Minority Groups: A Ten-Year Perspective, ” Catherine DeCarlo Santiago, Ph.D.; Jeanne Miranda, Ph.D., PsychiatryOnline, February 1, 2014.

HealthDay (2/11, Norton) reports that according to a RAND Corp. study published online Feb. 10 in the journal Pediatrics, “the cost of services for children with autism averages more than $17,000 per child each year – with school systems footing much of the bill.” Investigators “found that compared to kids without autism, those with the disorder had higher costs for doctor visits and prescriptions – an extra $3,000 a year, on average.” The study also revealed that “‘non-health care’ services averaged $14,000 per child, and special education at school accounted for more than 60 percent of those costs.” In arriving at these conclusions, the RAND researchers examined data derived from two US-wide surveys involving 19,000 families with children without autism and 246 families with youngsters with autism.

Related Links:

— “Autism Costs Average $17,000 Yearly for Each Child, Study Finds, ” Amy Norton, HealthDay, February 10, 2014.

In a column for the New York Times (2/9, Subscription Publication), Nicholas Kristof notes that as humane, cost-effective ways of treating mental illnesses have been cut back, the US is increasingly resorting to detaining individuals with mental illnesses in jails and prisons. Kristof notes that while people are not “officially incarcerated” for psychiatric ailments, many “are brought in for offenses that flow from mental illness,” and argues that the US, as a society has “in effect, returned to the 1800s.”

Related Links:

— “Inside a Mental Hospital Called Jail, ” Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, February 8, 2014.

MedPage Today (2/8, Hartman) reported that late last year, “to mark the one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, Vice President Joe Biden announced the executive branch would invest $100 million in the nation’s mental health system,” with the funds being “used to expand mental health services at community health centers and in rural America.” The Vice President’s “announcement was welcome news since the American Psychiatric Association estimates that in 2015 the nation will face a shortage of 22,000 child psychiatrists and 2,900 geriatric psychiatrists, and many of them are aging out of the profession according to the National Institute of Mental Health website (2/10), which notes that 55% of all psychiatrists are older than 55.”

Related Links:

— “Mental Health: Parity Yes, Providers No
, ” Ben Hartman, MD, MedPage Today, February 7, 2014.

MedPage Today (2/7, Neale) reports that research offers “support for depression as a treatable cause of coronary heart disease.” In one study, “which relied on repeat measures of depressive symptoms over 2 decades of follow-up,” researchers “demonstrated dose-response relationships between depression and both coronary death and nonfatal myocardial infarction, but not stroke.” The study was published online in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. In a separate study, which was “a post hoc analysis of a randomized trial,” researchers found “that an intervention to treat depression in older adults reduced the risk of hard cardiovascular events, but only in those who did not have pre-existing cardiovascular disease at baseline.” The study was published in Psychosomatic Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Treat Depression to Prevent CVD?, ” Todd Neale, MedPage Today, February 7, 2014.

The Daily Caller (2/7, Callahan) reports that according to the results of the four-year Marine Resiliency Study published in the February issue of JAMA Psychiatry, “soldiers who experience brain trauma in combat are more likely to experience symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).” The study of 1,648 Marines revealed that “moderate to severe brain trauma raised PTSD symptom scores by 71 percent.” The study authors concluded, “Probability of PTSD was highest for participants with severe pre-deployment symptoms, high combat intensity, and deployment-related” traumatic brain injuries.

Related Links:

— “What causes PTSD? Researchers come closer to finding out, “Katie Callahan, The Daily Caller, February 7, 2014.

In the “Blog” for the Huffington Post (2/6), Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont, observes, “Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) put forth a proposed rule that would make unprecedented changes to the six classes of medication that are specifically protected under Part D.” According to Dean, “Patients suffering from mental illness are likely to suffer the consequences of this rule more than any other populations.” He asserts, “The proposed rule would make significant changes to the availability of antidepressants and antipsychotics.” Such changes, made to reduce costs, would have the unintended consequence of making some mental illnesses even more difficult to manage and may result in more lengthy periods of disability for some patients.

Related Links:

— “Containing Health Costs Is Good But Not at the Expense of the Mentally Ill, “Howard Dean, The Huffington Post, February 5, 2014.

HealthDay (2/6) reports that according to research published in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal Sleep, “too much or too little sleep can increase the risk of depression.” One study, which involved some 1,700 adult twins, found that “inappropriate amounts of sleep may activate depression-related genes.” The second study, which involved some 4,100 children ranging in age from 11 to 17, revealed that “sleeping six hours or less per night increased their risk for major depression, which in turn increased their risk for too little sleep.”

Related Links:

— “Risk of Depression May Rise With Too Much or Too Little Sleep, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 5, 2014.

The Los Angeles Times (2/5, Mohan) “Science Now” blog reports, “Memory can be altered by new experience, and isn’t nearly as accurate as courtroom testimony might have us believe,” according to a study published online Feb. 4 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

USA Today (2/5, Weintraub) reports, “Using brain scans of 17 healthy volunteers as they were taught new data and recalled previously learned information,” researchers demonstrated “for the first time precisely when and where new information gets implanted into existing memories.” They found that when people recall “an old memory, the bits of information get melded with new bits relevant to [one’s] present life.” In other words, memories can be modified when retrieved.

Related Links:

— “Remembrance or revision? Brain study shows memory misleads, “Geoffrey Mohan, Los Angeles Times, February 4, 2014.

On its front page, the New York Times (2/5, A1, Kaufman, Subscription Publication) reports in a 1,200-word article that crisis hotlines have adopted texting as a means to communicate with callers, particularly with those aged under 20. Hotline centers have found that texting offers privacy. Callers can contact the center when a caller feels threatened by somebody nearby, and staff members can deal with multiple callers at once or “introduce experts into a conversation without transferring or placing a caller on hold.” Conversational records also exist, allowing staff members to refer to discussions that took place earlier if necessary. Organizations such as the National Dating Abuse Helpline and National Human Trafficking Resource Center have already adopted this means of communication.

Related Links:

— “In Texting Era, Crisis Hotlines Put Help at Youths’ Fingertips, “Leslie Kaufman, The New York Times, February 4, 2014.