In continuing coverage, Reuters (12/29, Begley) reported that many parents with children, teens and young adults with serious mental disorders are experiencing profound difficulties in obtaining help when their offspring are in crisis mode and need immediate mental healthcare. The situation is made even worse by state budget crises, a dwindling number of beds for psychiatric inpatients, and a nationwide shortage of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. In some cases, people needing mental healthcare end up in jails or in emergency departments.

Related Links:

— “U.S. mentally ill and their families face barriers to care, “Sharon Begley, Reuters, December 29, 2012.

HealthDay (12/29, Preidt) reported, “Constant worriers are at increased risk for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” according to a study recently published online in the journal Psychological Research. After following about 1,000 people for just over a decade, researchers found that “people who had higher levels of neuroticism at the start of the study were more likely to be among the five percent who developed PTSD.”

Related Links:

— “Chronic Worry Linked to Higher Risk of PTSD,”Robert Preidt, HealthDay News, December 28, 2012.

Medscape (12/29, Brauser) reported, “Admissions to substance abuse treatment programs by patients using a combination of benzodiazepines (benzos) and pain relievers have risen drastically over the past decade, according to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).” That report, “the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) Report for December 13, examined national records on annual admissions for substance use treatment.” It indicated “that between the years 2000 and 2010, admissions for those abusing both benzos and narcotic pain relievers increased more than 500% — whereas admissions for all other substances decreased by almost 10%.”

Related Links:

— “Admissions Reporting Benzodiazepine and Narcotic Pain Reliever Abuse at Treatment Entry,SAMHSA, December 13, 2012.

In continuing coverage, MedPage Today (12/28, Petrochko) reports, “Restrictions on gun violence research have stymied scientific efforts to find preventive solutions to mass shootings, such as the one in Newtown, Conn., according to physician researchers” writing online in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “The CDC has been stifled by language attached to a House of Representatives appropriations bill in 1996 that said ‘none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the CDC may be used to advocate or promote gun control,’ according to Frederick Rivara, MD, of Seattle Children’s Hospital in Washington, and Arthur Kellermann, MD, of the RAND Corporation in Washington.” A viewpointpublished online in the Archives of Internal Medicine echoed that JAMA article, saying that “answers to questions about private gun ownership and gun injuries and deaths cannot be found without restoring the ability of the CDC and other government agencies to study, and fund studies on, gun-related injuries.”

Related Links:

— “Gun Research Silenced by Cut in Funds, Docs Say,”Cole Petrochko, MedPage Today, December 27, 2012.

The Wall Street Journal (12/28, A6, Hagerty, Subscription Publication) reports that starting New Year’s Day, many smokers will find that new bans at companies and governments will go into effect. Employees of 3M and Delaware’s state government will no longer be allowed to smoke. A law approved in North Dakota would also ban smoking in bars and motels, as well as within 20 feet of doors near public buildings. Similar secondhand smoke laws are also being explored nationwide, such as in Bangor, Maine and San Francisco.

Related Links:

— “Curbs on Smokers Continue to Grow,”James Hagerty, The Wall Street Journal, December 27, 2012.

In a story titled “Pain Pills’ Littlest Victims,” the Wall Street Journal (12/28, A3, Campo-Flores, Subscription Publication) reports how US hospitals, particularly those in Florida and Kentucky, are struggling to cope with infants born with an addiction to opioid-based prescription painkillers or anti-addiction medications. These babies must be hospitalized in the NICU because of powerful, long-lasting withdrawal symptoms. Adding to the difficulty of the situation is that there is no specific medical protocol for weaning these babies from such medicines, and hospitals are learning as they go. What’s more, nobody knows what the long-term effects will be on the babies.

Related Links:

— “Pain Pills’ Littlest Victims,”Arian Campo Flores, The Wall Street Journal, December 28, 2012.

The Tennessean (12/27, Ammenheuser) reports, “The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 25 percent of college students have eating disorders. The same percent of college women report managing weight by binging and purging, says the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.” While the “problem’s more widespread among women,” about “10 percent to 15 percent of anorexics and bulimics are male,” the association explained.

Related Links:

— “Eating disorders boom as kids enter college,”Maura Ammenheuser, The Tennessean, December 27, 2012.

On the front of its Business Day section, the New York Times (12/22, Lieber, B1, Subscription Publication) reported , “Insurance covers more mental health care than many people may realize, and more people will soon have the kind of health insurance that does so.” However, “coverage goes only so far when there aren’t enough practitioners who accept it – or there aren’t any nearby, or they aren’t taking any new patients.” This may pose a particular “challenge for people who live far from major cities or big medical centers and need treatment for mental illnesses like severe depression or schizophrenia or disorders like autism.”

Related Links:

— “Walking the Tightrope on Mental Health Coverage, “Ron Leiber, The New York Times, December 21, 2012.

The Denver Post (12/23, O’Connor) reported that a report published last February in the journal Emergency Physicians Monthly found a 60% decrease in the number of psychiatric beds available for inpatients in the US between the years 1970 and 2002. Bed counts at hospitals run by counties and states plummeted by 90%, the article said. A 2008 study [pdf] conducted by the American College of Emergency Physicians revealed that Colorado has only 11.8 inpatient psychiatric beds per 100,000 persons, which appears to be one of the worst rates in the US.

Related Links:

— “Parents’ burden: Lack of resources adds to challenges of caring for the mentally ill, “Colleen O’Connor, The Denver Post, December 23, 2012.

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (12/26, A11, Subscription Publication), Peter M. Marzuk, MD, of the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, asserts that while the vast majority of people with mental illnesses are not violent and do not commit suicide or murder, nearly all people who do commit murder-suicides have underlying serious mental illness. He calls for systematic studies of the brains of those who perpetrate murder-suicides in order to better understand any underlying neurobiology that could be targeted for specific medicines or therapies. He would also like to see a US-wide registry of information on murder-suicides.

Related Links:

— “Unlocking the Mystery of Murder-Suicide, “Peter M. Marzuk, The Wall Street Journal, December 25, 2012.