HealthDay (3/22, Preidt) reports, “Despite beliefs to the contrary, overweight people with a serious mental illness are able to make the lifestyle changes necessary to lose weight,” according to a study simultaneously published online March 21 in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Heart Association meeting. “The study included 291 overweight or obese patients with a serious mental illness, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression.” Researchers enrolled 144 patients “in a program that provided them with simple nutrition advice, counseling and regular exercise classes.” The remaining 147 patients received no guidance for weight loss and served as the control group.

Related Links:

— “Mental Illness May Not Impede Healthy Weight Loss, Study Says, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 21, 2013.

CQ (3/22, Norman, Subscription Publication) reports that with the increasing suicide rates among members of the military drawing concern, “an expert on mental health told a House subcommittee on Thursday that there are many similarities between young adult civilians and members of the armed forces who take their own lives.” Jerry Reed, “director of the National Suicide Prevention Resource Center, said suicide is a broad societal problem among young adults in the United States – not just members of the armed forces.”

HealthDay (3/22, Preidt) reports, “Media coverage of mass shootings by people with mental illnesses may heighten the stigma that already surrounds people struggling with mental disorders,” according to the results of “an online survey of nearly 1,800 American adults” appearing in the April issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association. The survey “also found that public support for policies to reduce gun violence rises after news coverage of mass shootings. Specifically, people who read a news story describing a mass shooting were more likely than those who did not read such an article to support gun restrictions for people with serious mental illness, and for a ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines,” the survey found.

Sharfstein: Gun Laws Could Have Major Impact On US Suicide Rate. Psychiatric News (3/22) reports that former American Psychiatric Association president Steven Sharfstein, MD, in a piece that appeared earlier this week in the Baltimore Sun, emphasized that “while laws aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of people with mental illness, which are being debated in Maryland, would have little effect on the homicide rate in the United States, they could have a major impact on the suicide rate.” Dr. Sharfstein “pointed out that 20,000 of the 30,000 annual gun-related deaths in this country are suicides.” According to Dr. Sharfstein, “to bring down the gun suicide rate, strong barriers to availability of guns are needed.”

Related Links:

— “News Coverage of Shootings May Boost Stigma of Mental Illness, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 21, 2013.

The Arizona Republic (3/20, Sexton) reports, “Suicide among veterans and active military members is not a new problem, but the number of incidents has risen significantly in the last decade, reaching what former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta described as ‘epidemic’ levels.” The Republic adds, “Between 2000 and 2010 the number of veteran suicides rose from 20 to 22 per day, the VA reported last month. The total grew from an estimated 7,300 suicides in 2000 to an estimated 8,030 in 2010, for a difference of 730.”

Related Links:

— “As suicides rise among veterans, outreach increases, “Connie Cone Sexton, The Arizona Republic, March 19, 2013.

USA Today (3/19, Lloyd) reports, “A new report showing one in three older adults dies with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia is raising concerns about the disease’s ‘pervasive’ scope and the spiraling costs of care,” according to a report to be released March 18 by the Alzheimer’s Association. The report found that “deaths from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia have increased 68% from 2000 to 2010.” USA Today adds, “The Alzheimer’s numbers ‘are simply staggering,’ says Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, the federal agency overseeing research for 233 areas of disease.”

The New York Daily News (3/19, Evans) reports, “Records released Tuesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control show that the degenerative brain disease was the cause of death for 83,494 people in 2010 and was listed as a contributing factor for 26,488 additional people.” Currently, “Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the US, and the fifth leading cause of death in people over 65.”

Related Links:

— “One in three elderly have dementia when they die, “Janice Lloyd, USA Today, March 19, 2013.

The Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal (3/17, Ungar) reported, “A stigma continues to surround mental illness, and some advocates say it’s been strengthened in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shootings, which caused many to connect mental illness to violence.” The Courier-Journal added, “In reality, studies show that the mentally ill commit only a small portion of violent acts. A 2006 study in the American Journal of Psychiatry, for example, concluded that patients with severe mental illness, as identified by hospital admissions, committed about five percent of all violent crimes.” The Courier-Journal quoted American Psychiatric Association president Dilip Jeste, MD, who said in a statement made in December, “About one-quarter of all Americans have a mental disorder in any given year, and only a very small percentage of them will ever commit violent crimes.”

Related Links:

— “Stigma surrounding mental illness grows in wake of school shootings, “Laura Ungar, Courier-Journal, March 18, 2013.

HealthDay (3/18) reported, “Teens who were depressed as children are more likely to be obese, to smoke and to be sedentary,” according to a study that was scheduled to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society. The research involved more than 500 kids who were studied from the time they were age 9 until they were age 16. The investigators found that “twenty-two percent of the kids who were depressed at age 9 were obese at age 16.” The investigators “found similar patterns when they looked at smoking and physical activity.”

Related Links:

— “Childhood Depression May Be Tied to Later Heart Risk: Study, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 15, 2013.

In continuing coverage, Medscape (3/15, Brauser) reports that psychiatrists are at the top of ProPublica’s “updated Dollars for Docs list of large payments from pharmaceutical companies to individual US clinicians,” released March 12. Medscape Medical News spoke with James Scully, MD, CEO of the American Psychiatric Association, who said, “It surprises me because we’ve made so many changes in what we’ve done here at the APA.” He added, “Clearly, however, there are others out there who are still working closely with industry. That’s perfectly legal. But it’s important to have open communication. If people want to do marketing for drug companies, they need to be clear that that’s what they’re doing.”

In continuing coverage, the Hartford (CT) Courant (3/14, Sturdevant) “Insurance Capital” blog reported, “Several doctor organizations are criticizing Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut for not covering psychotherapy in some cases after a Jan. 1 change in medical-billing codes.” Insurer “Anthem has responded to changes in medical-billing codes for psychiatry by covering only visits for an evaluation or management of medical issues, and not psychotherapy as a separate equal category when provided during the same visit, according to the Connecticut Psychiatric Society, the American Psychiatric Association and the Connecticut State Medical Society.” The blog quoted APA CEO James H. Scully, Jr., MD, who called Anthem’s practices “unethical and illegal,” and who said, “We worked very hard to enact mental health parity laws, and it is now clear that Anthem is seeking a way to avoid compliance.”

Related Links:

— “Doctors: Anthem Not Paying For Psychotherapy In Some Cases, “MSturdevant, Hartford Courant, March 14, 2013.

On its website, WUSA-TV Washington (DC) Washington (3/14) reported, “The American Psychiatric Association (APA) no longer classifies sexual masochism, fetishism, transvestism, and sadism as mental disorders, according to The Daily Mail.” Now, “in order for something to be classified as a disorder, a person must ‘feel personal distress about their interest.’ These sexual interests will be renamed in an upcoming edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).”

Related Links:

— “APA: Happy People Who Have Sexual Fetishes No Longer Have Mental Disorder,CBS DC, March 14, 2013.