The AP (4/14, Crary) reported, “By the dozens, survivors of attempted suicide across the United States are volunteering to be part of a project by a Brooklyn-based photographer, Dese’Rae Stage, called ‘Live Through This’ – a collection of photographic portraits and personal accounts.” The AP added, “It’s one of several new initiatives transforming the nation’s suicide-prevention community as more survivors find the courage to speak out and more experts make efforts to learn from them.” In addition to the “Live Through This” effort, “there’s a new survivors task force, an array of blogs, some riveting YouTube clips, all with the common goal of stripping away anonymity, stigma and shame.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide Survivors Help to Shape Prevention Efforts, “David Crary, Associated Press, April 13, 2013.

In an editorial, the New York Times (4/12, Subscription Publication) encourages Judge Anita Brody of Philadelphia’s Federal District Court to allow over 200 grouped cases filed by over 4,000 retired National Football League players against the league to proceed. The lawsuits allege the NFL failed “to protect players from chronic risks of head injuries routinely inflicted in professional football games – and then willfully concealing those risks from players.” The Times notes a “an extensive study of brain samples from deceased football and hockey players, military veterans and others who suffered repeated hits to the head added to the mounting evidence of a link between head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., an incurable, degenerative disease leading to dementia and depression.” The editorial board concludes that following “years of debate in the volatile court of public opinion, the place to address and resolve these serious and important charges is in a steady and independent court of law.”

Related Links:

— “Brain Disease and the N.F.L., “The Editorial Board, The New York Times, April 11, 2013.

On its “Healthwatch” blog, The Hill (4/12, Viebeck) reports that the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations “is asking the Obama administration to assist its review of U.S. mental health policy by providing a comprehensive list of all programs and research projects that address the topic.” Reps. Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Diana DeGette (D-CO), who head the subcommittee, “wrote to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Wednesday as part of an effort to study and better coordinate the U.S. mental healthcare system following the Newtown, Conn., shooting late last year.” The Hill adds that “Murphy and DeGette requested that OMB provide, in addition to its list, an accounting of all federal funds devoted to mental health programs.”

Related Links:

— “Lawmakers seek full list of federal mental health programs, “Elise Viebeck, The Hill, April 11, 2013.

HealthDay (4/12, Preidt) reports, “US veterans who suffered major limb injuries in combat showed little improvement with mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the two years after receiving treatment for their wounds,” according to research presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. For the study, researchers “conducted phone interviews with nearly 300 veterans who suffered major combat-related limb injuries.” Notably, “at various points during the interview period, nearly 14 percent of the veterans reported generalized anxiety disorder, 14 percent reported depression and five percent had suicidal thoughts.” Almost half (46%) struggled with low-level PTSD, while another 12% said they suffered from higher-level PTSD.

Related Links:

— “Severely Injured Vets May Need Ongoing Emotional Care, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 11, 2013.

Medwire (4/11, Grasmo) reports that “study findings published in PLoS One reveal that over one-third of parents and step-parents who murder their children – known as filicide – have a mental disorder.” For the study, researchers analyzed “a national index of homicide perpetrators to identify 297 filicides and 45 filicides that were followed by suicides that occurred in England and Wales during 1997 through 2006.” Investigators found that “a history of mental illness was present in 40% of perpetrators, and this was more common in mothers than in fathers (66 vs 27%).”

Related Links:

— “Mental disorders prevalent among parents who commit filicide, “Ingrid Grasmo, Medwire News, April 10, 2013.

Medscape (4/11, Keller) reports, “Cannabis use not only increases the risk for schizophrenia but new research suggests it is associated with more severe schizophrenic psychosis,” according to research presented at EPA 2013: 21st European Congress of Psychiatry. After performing “a longitudinal study of 50,087 male Swedish army conscripts aged 18 to 19 years between 1969 and 1970,” researchers found that “schizophrenia patients with a history of cannabis use had longer hospital stays, a higher rate of hospital readmission, and a type of schizophrenia ‘that may be more severe than schizophrenia cases in general,’ according to study investigator Peter Allebeck, MD, PhD, professor of social medicine in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.”

According to the New York Times (4/10, Reynolds) “Well” blog, research recently published in the Journal of Aging Research suggests that “regular exercise can substantially improve memory, although different types of exercise seem to affect the brain quite differently.” In a small study of 86 elderly women between the ages of 70 and 80 who had mild cognitive impairment who were randomized to weight training, brisk walking, or simple stretching and toning exercises and then were evaluated six months later, researchers found that “women who had exercised, either by walking or weight training, performed better on almost all of the cognitive tests after six months than they had before.” Interestingly, “while both exercise groups improved almost equally on tests of spatial memory, the women who had walked showed greater gains in verbal memory than the women who had lifted weights.” Women who stretched and performed toning exercises scored worse on memory tests.

Related Links:

— “Getting a Brain Boost Through Exercise, “Gretchen Reynolds, The New York Times, April 10, 2013.

HealthDay (4/10, Preidt) reports, “Internet searches for information about mental illnesses follow seasonal patterns, which suggests that there may be a stronger association between mental disorders and changing seasons than previously believed,” according to a study published in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “Researchers analyzed data from Google searches for mental health information made in Australia and the United States from 2006 through 2010. The analysis revealed that the number of such searches in both countries was consistently higher in winter than in summer.”

Related Links:

— “Google Search Trends Suggest Mental Woes Vary by Seasons, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 10, 2013.

USA Today (4/9, Kucinich) reports, “Mental health advocates, heartened when their cause took center stage in the wake of the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., are now looking past the gun debate with the hope of having a more positive discussion about the issue.” That’s because “the focus [has been] primarily on how to prevent mentally ill people from obtaining weapons rather than improving care.” To urge a new focus, “the VERA Institute of Justice issued a policy paper warning that mental health should be dealt with as a public health issue, rather than a criminal justice issue.” And “Congressional advocates of expanding mental health said Tuesday that…the push to make changes to the mental health issue would continue.” In addition, the President’s budget proposes “$235 million for new mental health programs.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health advocates worry about gun legislation, “Jackie Kucinich, USA Today, April 9, 2013.

Medscape (4/10, Melville) reports, “Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have an increased risk for earlier onset of some health conditions compared with those without the disorder,” according to research presented at the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) 33rd Annual Conference. “For the study, researchers evaluated data on 34,653 community-dwelling adults older than 20 years from Wave 2 (2004-2005) of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC).” The data revealed that “those with PTSD had greater odds of having conditions, including gastrointestinal disorders, across all age groups and of having conditions such as arthritis at a younger age compared with those without the disorder.”