HealthDay (6/7, Preidt) reports, “More than half of people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) also suffer from depression,” according to a review published online this month in the Journal of Traumatic Stress. Investigators “reviewed the findings of 57 studies that included more than 6,600 civilians and military personnel who suffered from PTSD and found that 52 percent of them also had symptoms of depression.”

Related Links:

— “Depression Common in Those With PTSD, Study Finds, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, June 06, 2013.

The Los Angeles Times (6/6, Terhune) reports that a new study, released Thursday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that “U.S. consumers who purchase their own health insurance saved $2.1 billion last year due to tougher rules in the federal healthcare law.” According to the report, “individual premiums would have been $1.9 billion higher in 2012 without the requirements in the federal Affordable Care Act. In addition, the nonprofit group said individual policyholders nationwide should receive $241 million in rebates this summer.”

Related Links:

— “Health law led to $2.1 billion in savings for consumers, report says, “Chad Terhune, Los Angeles Times, June 06, 2013.

Bloomberg News (6/5, Robertson) reports that while “hospitals in the U.S. pledge to keep a patient’s health background confidential,” states including Washington and New York “are putting privacy at risk by selling records that can be used to link a person’s identity to medical conditions using public information.” The article explains, “the potential for a patient’s hospital record to be made public by anyone buying data compiled by states adds to ways privacy is vulnerable in an age of digitized health record keeping and increasingly sophisticated hacking.” Still, “the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, which investigates HIPAA violations, has not received complaints about companies identifying patients, said Rachel Seeger, a spokeswoman for the agency.”

Related Links:

— “States’ Hospital Data for Sale Puts Privacy in Jeopardy, “Jordan Robertson, Bloomberg News, June 04, 2013.

In a lengthy segment on the CBS Evening News (6/4, story 7, 4:10, Pelley), CBS News correspondent Seth Doane followed one family’s struggle to help their “mentally ill child…prone to violence.” The Lammers family discussed how they tried everything to help their son Blake, who by the age of 18 had already been twice placed in a mental hospital for four-day stays. While doing the laundry, Blake’s mother found a receipt for an AR-15 assault weapon he had purchased legally. Because had never been committed by a court to a psychiatric hospital, his background check had revealed no record of his mental health history. When Blake revealed he had plans to use the assault weapon at a local movie theater, his mother turned him in. Blake, now 21, is in jail, currently facing three felony counts. While worried that he is not receiving the treatment he needs in jail, the Lammers family is thankful they were able to intervene before Blake could carry out his plan.

Psychiatric News (6/5) reports that on June 3, “President Obama and Vice President Biden held a White House conference on mental health.” In attendance was American Psychiatric Association president Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, APA president-elect Paul Summergrad, MD, Jeffrey Borenstein, MD, editor-in-chief of Psychiatric News, former member of Congress Patrick Kennedy. “After the conference, these participants, as well as APA Medical Director James H. Scully Jr., MD, hosted a press conference to discuss some of the pressing issues in mental health care.” At the press conference, APA representatives discussed the Federal mental health parity law “which still does not have a final rule to ensure that insurance companies follow the law.” The representatives also discussed the fact that many people in the US mistakenly believe that people with mental illnesses are violent. Finally, the representatives discussed the issue of combating stigma.

Related Links:

— “APA Representatives Hold Press Conference in Wake of White House Meeting,Psychiatric News, June 04, 2013.

MedPage Today (6/5, Gever) reports, “Anxiety, not depression, is the most common mental health issue facing long-term cancer survivors and their spouses,” according to “a large meta-analysis” published online in the Lancet Oncology.

HealthDay (6/5) reports that researchers “analyzed data from 27 publications that reported on a total of 43 comparison studies and found that levels of depression were similar among adults without cancer and adult cancer survivors two or more years after diagnosis, 10.2 percent and 11.6 percent, respectively.” But, the investigators found that “cancer survivors were 27 percent more likely to report anxiety two or more years after their diagnosis and 50 percent more likely to experience anxiety 10 or more years after diagnosis, the findings indicated.” Additionally, the investigators “found that cancer survivors’ partners were even more likely than survivors to experience anxiety over the long term (40 percent versus 28 percent).”

Related Links:

— “After the Cancer the Worry Remains, ” John Gever, MedPage Today, June 04, 2013.

The Time (6/6, Szalavitz) “Healthland” blog reports, “Childhood emotional and sexual abuse mark women’s brains in distinct patterns – with emotional abuse affecting regions involved in self-awareness and sexual abuse affecting areas involved in genital sensation,” according to a 51-patient imaging study published June 1 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association. The brain changes were not insignificant. The study’s lead author “says that if a region typically was 5 millimeters thick on average, in abuse survivors it was just 3 to 4 millimeters.”

Related Links:

— “Sexual and Emotional Abuse Scar the Brain in Specific Ways, ” Maia Szalavitz, The Time, June 05, 2013.

The New York Times (6/6, A17, Tavernise, Subscription Publication) reports that a panel of experts assembled by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council at President Obama’s request after the school shooting in Newton, Connecticut delivered an “ambitious set of priorities” for the government to obtain “better data on guns.” There is currently no national figure regarding the number of guns that are in the country, and researchers often do not have access to data from law enforcement agencies regarding “data on specific games,” although they only track guns used in crimes. The experts said because “Basic information about gun possession, distribution, ownership, acquisition and storage is lacking,” it makes it “virtually impossible to answer fundamental questions” about how to establish programs to reduce gun violence.

Related Links:

— “Panel Says Better Data Is Needed on Gun Issues, “Sabrina Tavernise, The New York Times, June 05, 2013.

HealthDay (6/6, Reinberg) reports that research published in Neurology suggests that “older people who suffer from…atrial fibrillation may also be more likely to experience mental declines sooner.” Researchers looked at “data on more than 5,000 people aged 65 and older who took part in the Cardiovascular Health Study.”

MedPage Today (6/6, Neale) reports that the researchers found that, “at age 75 and older, scores on the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE) declined by about 3 points more for every 5 years of aging for individuals who developed atrial fibrillation compared with those who did not develop the arrhythmia.”

Related Links:

— “Irregular Heartbeat May Speed Memory Loss in Seniors, “Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, June 05, 2013.

Psychiatric News (6/4) reports that the American Psychiatric Association “was well represented at [yesterday’s] National Conference on Mental Health hosted by President Obama and Vice-President Biden at the White House.” Conference invitees included APA President Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, Psychiatric News Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Borenstein, MD, and APA President-elect Paul Summergrad, MD. After the conference, Dr. Lieberman said, “We commend the Administration’s efforts through this national dialogue to focus attention and resources on important mental health issues and the need to eliminate stigma and improve access to quality care for all individuals who need mental health services.” Dr. Lieberman added, “An important part of that access is insurance coverage for mental health treatment, and we look forward to working with the Administration to fully implement parity for mental health care nationwide.”

In a news release (pdf) covering the event, the American Psychiatric Association wrote, “In an effort to help better address mental health issues in the primary care setting, APA is partnering with the American Medical Association to disseminate educational materials developed by the APA to help physicians in all specialties better integrate mental health screenings into their practices, reduce misperceptions of mental illness, and direct patients to additional mental health services when needed.”

Related Links:

— “APA Representatives Attend White House Mental Health Conference, Psychiatric News, June 03, 2013.