In a cover piece for the Atlantic (12/23, Stossel) in which he describes his long-life struggle with anxiety, Scott Stossel, editor of the Atlantic and author of the upcoming book, “My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind,” writes, “According to the National Institute of Mental Health, some 40 million American adults, about one in six, are suffering from some kind of anxiety disorder at any given time; based on the most recent data from the Department of Health and Human Services, their treatment accounts for more than a quarter of all spending on mental-health care.” He adds, “Today, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (now in its just-published fifth edition, DSM-5) defines hundreds of mental disorders,” including anxiety. After recounting his difficulties with treatments and medication, Stossel looks at the bright side of the matter, noting that “anxiety is productive mainly when it is not so strong as to be debilitating,” improving job performance, for example.

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— “Surviving Anxiety, “Scott Stossel , The Atlantic, December 22, 2013.

On its front page, the New York Times (12/22, A1, Luo, McIntire, Subscription Publication) reported that a case in Connecticut “highlights a central, unresolved issue in the debate over balancing public safety and the Second Amendment right to bear arms: just how powerless law enforcement can be when it comes to keeping firearms out of the hands of people who are mentally ill.” Under Connecticut law, police have “broad leeway to seize and hold guns for up to a year” in such cases, but even “police often find themselves grappling with legal ambiguities when they encounter mentally unstable people with guns…in particular, how they should respond when the owners want them back.” The Connecticut case involves Mark Russo, who has had problems adhering to medication for paranoid schizophrenia. Police confiscated his firearms after he threatened to shoot his mother. However, Russo is due to have his guns returned to him in the spring under Connecticut law.

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— “When the Right to Bear Arms Includes the Mentally Ill, “Michael Luo, The New York Times, December 21, 2013.

In an opinion piece for Bloomberg News (12/22, Satel), psychiatrist Sally Satel, MD, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, lauded the recently proposed “Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2013,” which “addresses a long list of inadequacies in services for people who suffer from schizophrenia, bipolar illness, major depression and other severe conditions.” After calling the bill, which was introduced by clinical psychologist Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), “the most ambitious mental-health legislation since the Community Mental Health Act of 1963,” Dr. Satel concluded that passage of the measure would allow the Federal government to begin “major repairs to our flawed mental-health system.”

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— “A Law to Fix Mental-Health Care, ” Sally Satel, Bloomberg News, December 22, 2013.

In a letter to the editor of the New York Times (12/21, A18, Subscription Publication), psychiatrist Jeffrey A. Lieberman, MD, president of the American Psychiatric Association, wrote in response to an article titled “Fewer Psychiatrists Seen Taking Health Insurance” that “patients with access must deal with discriminatory and often illegal barriers to mental health and addiction services by” health insurers, while psychiatrists themselves are putting up with “discriminatory actions of insurers” when it comes to reimbursement practices. Dr. Lieberman concluded, “The American Psychiatric Association is hopeful that the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act will bring equality in treatment coverage, but we will continue monitoring for enforcement.”

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— “An Insurance Trap for Psychiatrists and Patients, The New York Times, December 20, 2013.

MedPage Today (12/20, Boyles) reports that research published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association indicated that “having a history of heart attack without stroke doubled the threat of mild cognitive impairment and dementia, adding to the evidence linking heart disease and mental decline in older women.” Researchers found that “women in the study who had experienced myocardial infarctions (MIs) had twice the risk for cognitive decline as women with no MI history over a median of 8.4 years of follow up.” The study also indicated that “older, postmenopausal women with cardiovascular disease (CVD) were also 29% more likely than women without CVD to experience cognitive declines (HR 1.29; 95% CI 1.00-1.67), and hypertension and diabetes increased the risk for cognitive decline in women without CVD (HR 1.25; 95% CI 1.00-1.57 and HR 1.83, 95% CI 1.24-2.70, respectively).”

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— “Dementia Risk Spikes in Older Women after MI, “Salynn Boyles, MedPage Today, December 19, 2013.

In “The Blog” for the Huffington Post (12/18, Jaffe), D.J. Jaffe, executive director of the Mental Illness Policy Org., observed that the “Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis” Act would “reorient the mental health system away from its focus on serving the largest numbers of the highest functioning and back towards providing treatment for the most seriously mentally ill.” The proposed legislation “reforms the bureaucracy, eliminates programs that don’t help or are harmful, and invests the savings in programs known to reduce incarceration, homelessness, suicide and hospitalization in the most seriously ill.” Jaffe called the measure “a novel, thoughtful proposal that warrants serious consideration.”

Related Links:

— “New Bill Decreases Mental Health Funding, Increases Mental Illness Funding, “DJ Jaffe, The Huffington Post, December 18, 2013.

In continuing coverage, MedPage Today (12/19, Pittman) reports that last Thursday at a sparsely attended press conference, clinical psychologist Rep. Tim Murphy, PhD (R-PA), a “leading voice on mental health reform in Congress, unveiled…his 135-page Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act [pdf],” HR 3717 (pdf), which “was the result of a year-long investigation into the nation’s mental health system” in the wake of the Newtown, CT school shootings. In the year since the Newtown tragedy, no mental healthcare bill has been passed, and last week’s poorly attended “press conference was a microcosm of the attention the issue has not gotten on Capitol Hill.”

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— “Pay and Practice: Mental Health Reform Gets Lost, “David Pittman, MedPage Today, December 18, 2013.

HealthDay (12/19, Preidt) reports that, according to a study published Dec. 18 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, “older women with heart disease might be at increased risk for dementia.” After tracking some “6,500 US women, aged 65 to 79, who had healthy brain function” at the start of the study, researchers found that women “with heart disease were 29 percent more likely to experience mental decline over time than those without heart disease.” The study authors recommended that women who have undergone bypass surgery or carotid endarterectomy, who have suffered a heart attack, or who are being treated for atrial fibrillation, heart failure or peripheral vascular disease be closely watched by their physicians for signs of cognitive decline.

Related Links:

— “Dementia Risk Might Rise for Older Women With Heart Disease, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, December 18, 2013.

Medwire (12/18, Gray) reports that, according to a study published online Dec. 10 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, “sustaining a head injury between the ages of 11 and 15 years was the strongest predictor for the subsequent development of schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after analyzing data on 113,906 individuals born between 1977 and 2000 who went to the hospital with a head injury.

Related Links:

— “Head injuries increase risk for psychiatric disorders, “Afsaneh Gray, Medwire News, December 18, 2013.

The Miami Herald (12/18, De Armas) reports that, according to the National Institute on Aging, “symptoms of Alzheimer’s usually appear after age 60, and it is estimated that as many as 5.1 million Americans have the disease.” As families gather “for the holiday season, some individuals may notice changes in a family member’s physical or cognitive health – especially elderly relatives – that can be the first sign of Alzheimer’s disease.” According to the article, “It is important for family members to be proactive” in these situations.

Related Links:

— “During the holidays, keep an eye on the elderly for symptoms of Alzheimer’s, “Elizabeth De Armas, The Miami Herald, December 17, 2013.