NBC Nightly News (1/8, story 8, 2:05, Williams) broadcast that the CDC warns that binge drinking “is a big problem especially and acutely for women.” It is responsible for the death of 23,000 women and girls each year. The CDC study claims the excessive drinking is “becoming dangerous and is often overlooked as a health problem for women, who respond to alcohol differently than men.” Dr. Aaron White of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism said the differences include women “being more susceptible to the effects of alcohol and the risk of cancer,” liver problems, and brain damage. A survey of over 278,000 women 18 years of age or older found that “nearly 14 million women binge drink about 3 times a month.” 1 in 5 high school girls also report binge drinking.

USA Today (1/8, Payne) reports the CDC study “found that binge drinking was most common among women ages 18-34 and high school girls. It also was most prevalent among women living in households with annual incomes of $75,000 or higher.” David Jernigan, director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said “it is crucial that the problem is highlighted” because girls are transitioning from beer to spirits. CDC Director Thomas Frieden said that in order to curb binge drinking, “effective community measures can support women and girls in making wise choices about whether to drink or how much to drink if they do.”

Related Links:

— “CDC: Binge drinking is serious problem for girls, women, “Cathy Payne, USA Today, January 8, 2013.

CQ (1/9, Adams, Subscription Publication) reports, “Prescription drug misuse is second only to marijuana as the nation’s most prevalent illicit drug problem,” according to an analysis released Jan. 8 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The study showed “seven of the 10 states with the highest rates of nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers were in the West: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington.” The authors of the SAMHSA report also noted “some progress,” namely, that “prescription drug misuse among people over age 12 fell in 10 states (Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and West Virginia).” Moreover, when they compared 2009-2010 data with the 2010-2011 data, they found that there was no worsening of prescription medication misuse in any state during the two, combined time frames.

CQ (1/9, Attias, Subscription Publication) reports that Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL), Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-CA), and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) “are gathering signatures on a letter that calls on the Obama administration to preserve mental health funding in its fiscal 2014 budget proposal.” In their letter to Jeffrey Zients of the Office of Management and Budget, the lawmakers wrote in wake of the Newtown, CT school shootings, “Those tragedies illustrate one clear fact: America is facing a mental health crisis that we can no longer ignore.” The letter, which had gained the signatures of 34 legislators as of midday Tuesday, also “presses for programs focused on prevention and detection, as well as access to treatment services for mental health and substance abuse issues.”

The Baltimore Sun (1/8, Anderson, Walker) reported, “Mental health and law enforcement professionals say patients commonly wind up in emergency rooms and jails that are poorly equipped to handle their disorders, when earlier treatment might have prevented such crises. Even in Maryland, which advocates say is ahead of other states, tight budgets have led to fewer beds in mental health institutions and not enough community programs.” The Newtown, CT shootings have “elevated a long-simmering debate over how to provide care for the mentally ill, as treatment continues to shift from a system of government-run institutions to one that aims to keep people in their communities.” Complicating matters is the fact that funding for mental health programs has diminished considerably due to budgetary constraints over the past few years at the same time that more people have required services.

Related Links:

— “Dearth of mental health treatment options leads to emergencies,”Jessica Anderson, The Baltimore Sun, January 7, 2013.

Psychiatric News (1/9) reports that in an paper published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, “researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) are reporting that a set of four questions that emergency department (ED) physicians or nurses can ask successfully identifies youth who are at risk for attempting suicide.” In 17 young people ranging in age from 10 to 21 who presented with either a psychiatric or surgical/medical issue at the ED, researchers “found that four of the questions used as a set accurately predicted suicide attempts. The questions asked about ‘current thoughts of being…better off dead, current wish to die, current suicidal ideation, and history of suicide attempt.'” A positive answer to one or more of these four questions identified 97% of the young people at risk for suicide, investigators reported.

Related Links:

— “Four Simple Questions Identify Youth at Risk of Suicide,Psychiatric News Alert, January 8, 2013.

The New York Times (1/9, A11, Carey, Subscription Publication) reports, “Most adolescents who plan or attempt suicide have already received at least some mental health treatment, raising questions about the effectiveness of current approaches to helping troubled youths, according to the largest in-depth analysis to date of suicidal behaviors in American teenagers.” In the study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, researchers “found that 55 percent of suicidal teenagers had received some therapy before they thought about suicide, planned it or tried to kill themselves, contradicting the widely held belief that suicide is due in part to a lack of access to treatment.” The study’s findings were “based on interviews with a nationwide sample of more than 6,000 teenagers and at least one parent of each.”

Bloomberg News (1/9, Lopatto) reports, “Of all the mental disorders, only major depression and dysthymia, a type of chronic depression, predicted a suicide plan. Those two illnesses, as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, eating disorders and intermittent explosive disorder also suggested a higher risk of suicide attempts,” the study found.

Related Links:

— “Study Questions Effectiveness of Therapy for Suicidal Teenagers, “Benedict Carey, Teh New York Times, January 8, 2013.

In collaboration with NPR, Kaiser Health News (1/8, Gold) reports, “Over the past decade, colleges and universities across the country have seen an influx of students…with mental health needs.” In fact, “the average college counseling center sees about 10 percent of the student body each year.” For that reason, “some campuses are exploring new systems to help meet the growing demand.” The article explains how the University of Virginia’s counseling center employs a triage system so as many students can be seen as possible, considering the fact that UVA’s center has only 12 therapists who work full time.

Related Links:

— “Triage System Helps Colleges Treat Mentally Ill Students, “Jenny Gold, Kaiser Health News, January 7, 2013.

Bloomberg News (1/8, Lopatto, Cortez) reports, “Former National Football League players suffer more depression than ordinary people, according to research that may explain recent suicides in the group,” according to a study published online Jan. 7 in JAMA Neurology. In the “study of 34 retired NFL players, about 25 percent suffered with clinical depression, higher than the 15 percent seen in the general population.”

On its website, CBS News (1/8, Jaslow) reports that the study “adds to the evidence that repeated head blows absorbed during a football career could lead to changes in the brain that affect the athletes’ behavior.” Both “neurological and neuropsychological tests,” along with 26 detailed brain scans taken of study participants, revealed that “players were more likely to report cognitive impairment and depression and show physical brain changes on an MRI scan, compared to healthy individuals.”

The CNN (1/7, Smith) “The Chart” blog explains that “it was problems with white matter among players that caught study authors’ interest.” That is because “White matter is brain tissue that acts as a sort of conveyor belt for signals traveling to different brain regions. When white matter is damaged — think about that conveyor belt veering off-course or stopping altogether — problems crop up with cognition, or thinking ability.”

According to MedPage Today (1/8, Walsh), “Disrupted white matter integrity appears to represent a potentially important biomarker for neurobehavioral impairment,” the study authors concluded. An editorial accompanying the study “called for more epidemiologic data on the incidence on chronic traumatic encephalopathy and risk factors.” The editorialists wrote, “Because the symptoms of CTE, such as irritability, depression, and cognitive problems, are protean and nonspecific, biomarkers and neuroimaging to complement the clinical examination will likely be essential and will improve the accuracy of the diagnosis during the lifetime of the individual and will be used to follow the natural history of the illness.”

HealthDay (1/8, Storrs) points out, “The current study did not find a relationship between the number of concussions that a player experienced and whether they went on to develop a cognitive impairment.”

WebMD (1/8, Doheny) notes, “The study was supported by the Brain Health Institute for Athletes and a grant from the National Institute on Aging.” Reuters (1/8, Pittman) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “NFL Brain Injuries Make Depression More Likely, Study Suggests, “Elizabeth Lopatto, Bloomberg, January 8, 2013.

Medscape (1/5, Brauser) reported, “The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has fired back a strong response to a recent article by the Washington Post questioning the possibility of pharmaceutical industry influence on decisions regarding the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).” David Kupfer, MD, chair of the DSM-5 Task Force, said in a news release(pdf), “While speculation is bound to occur, we think it is important to stay focused on the fact that APA has gone to great lengths to ensure that DSM-5 and APA’s clinical practice guidelines are free from bias.” Dr. Kupfer “noted that no DSM-5 task force or work group member is allowed to have more than $10,000 of his or her annual income to be derived from industry sources, nor are members allowed to hold stock or shares valued at more than $50,000 in a pharmaceutical or device company.”

MedPage Today (1/5, Neale) reported, “A few modifiable behaviors appear to explain the relationship between depressive symptoms and poorer outcomes in patients in with coronary heart disease,” according to a 4,676-participant study published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Investigators found, “as seen in previous studies,” that “patients with elevated depressive symptoms had a higher risk of MI or all-cause death through about four years of follow-up, after accounting for demographics, education, income, and body mass index (HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.72).” But, “further adjustment for comorbidities, medications, and four behavioral variables — smoking, physical inactivity, medication non-adherence, and alcohol use — rendered the association nonsignificant (HR 1.14, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.40), suggesting that some of those factors mediated the relationship.”

Related Links:

— “Depressed Heart Patients Have Worse Outcomes, “Todd Neale, Medpage Today, January 4, 2013.