he NPR (10/16, Hamilton) “Shots” blog reports, “Researchers at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans presented studies showing how stress caused by everything from battlefield trauma to bullying can alter brain circuitry in ways that have long-term effects on mental health.” For example, “one way traumatic events appear to cause depression is by inhibiting the brain’s so-called reward system.” Yet “another way stress affects mental health is by releasing chemicals that impair the function of the prefrontal cortex, which is where higher level thought takes place,” another study found.

Related Links:

— “Brain Scientists Uncover New Links Between Stress And Depression, “Jon Hamilton, NPR, Ocober 15, 2012.

In a special piece for the Washington Post (10/16), Paul Gionfriddo, a former Connecticut legislator who has worked for more than 30 years in the fields of health and mental health policy and the father of a son with schizophrenia, writes, “We legislators in Connecticut and many other states made a series of critical misjudgments” during the 1980s when the state emptied many of the mental hospitals. For instance, “we didn’t adequately fund community agencies to meet new demands for community mental health services — ultimately forcing our county jails to fill the void.” In addition, “we didn’t realize how important it would be to create collaborations among educators, primary-care clinicians, mental-health professionals, social-services [professionals], even members of the criminal justice system, to give people with serious mental illnesses a reasonable chance of living successfully in the community.”

Related Links:

— “My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life., “Paul Gionfriddo, The Washington Post, October 15, 2012.

CQ (10/12, McGlade, Subscription Publication) reported on new laws across the country “that crack down on concussion awareness and treatment” in youth sports. The laws, passed in about 30 states and DC over the last three years, govern “what protocols must be followed when a player receives a blow to the head and what education grown ups must get to better be able to spot and prevent such injuries.” The article notes that most laws are based upon the one Washington state passed in 2009.

Poll Shows Parents Often Don’t Seek Treatment For Concussions In Children. HealthDay (10/12) reported, “only half of US adults who thought they or their children might have a concussion sought medical treatment,” according to a new survey from the American Osteopathic Association. According to the article, this finding “suggests many people do not understand the seriousness of a potential concussion.”

Study Finds Concussion Treatment Standards For College Athletics “Inconsistent.” HealthDay (10/15) reported on new research which found that “standards used to diagnose concussion in college athletes are inconsistent and require clearer definitions and better tools to make the diagnosis.” The five-year study, published Oct. 2 in the Journal of Neurosurgery, “included 450 male and female athletes who played on football and hockey teams at three major US universities: Brown University, Dartmouth College and Virginia Tech.”

Related Links:

— “Parents May Be Taking Concussion Symptoms Too Lightly: Survey, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, October 12, 2012.

CBS’ 60 Minutes (10/14, 7:23 p.m. ET) broadcast that Veterans Affairs “tells us about 20%” of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans come home from war with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some of those vets have gotten in trouble with the law, and this troubled Texas State District Judge Marc Carter, who is himself a veteran. Harris knew that the DeBakey VA in Houston “had plenty of empty seats in programs for PTSD and addiction.” So, in 2009, he started a veterans’ court in Harris County, Texas. The court has been successful, as have 100 similar courts in other parts of the country. As a result, 100 more such courts are in the planning stages.

On its website, KQED San Francisco (10/12) reported that the limited ability of prescription medications to treat PTSD has renewed interest in meditation, specifically “compassion meditation,” which “aims at a specific and widely held hypothesis about what is happening in the brain of someone like John Montgomery,” a Vietnam veteran. “The idea is that in combat, a switch — a fight-or-flight survival mode located in a part of the brain called the amygdala — has been turned on, and become essentially stuck. Meanwhile, another part, the frontal cortex, takes the backseat.” Studies show that repeated sessions “can increase ‘positive affect’ and ‘social connectedness,’ both of which are deficient in PTSD patients, according to a 2012 meta-analysis on the efficacy of different kinds of meditation in treating PTSD.”

Related Links:

— “Can Meditation Ease PTSD in Combat Vets?, “Amy Standen, KQED, October 12, 2012.

USA Today (10/12, Shah) reports that yesterday, “more than 1,000 sites across the USA, including colleges, community organizations, and military installations,” offered “free anonymous screening tests for depression and other mental health issues…through National Depression Screening Day. The assessment, also available online” here, evaluates “individuals on 13 multiple-choice questions about everything from appetite and sleeping patterns to changes in mood and behavior.” National Depression Screening Day was sponsored by Screening for Mental Health, Inc.

Survey Finds Depression Stigma May Be Lessening. HealthDay (10/12, Dallas) reports, “Most Americans know what depression is and believe there is no shame in seeking treatment for the mental health condition, a new survey shows. The public opinion poll, released Thursday to coincide with National Depression Screening Day,” also revealed that “67 percent of Americans believe depression is usually treatable.”

CNN Editor Describes Her Own Battle With Depression. In a special piece for CNN (10/12) to tie in with National Depression Screening Day, Kat Kinsman, who serves as Eatocracy managing editor for the network and who suffers from depression, writes about her own experiences with the condition and shares experiences of others who also suffer. The piece provides links for those with depression to get help.

Related Links:

— “Depression Screening Day offers help online, in person, “Yagana Shah, USA TODAY, October 11, 2012.

HealthDay (10/11, Preidt) reports, “Moving from an area with a high poverty level to an area with less poverty benefits the mental health of some teen girls,” according to a study published online Oct. 8 in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Investigators “looked at low-income families in public housing in five US cities — Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York — between 1994 and 1997. The families were randomly selected to remain in public housing (high-poverty areas) or to receive government-funded rental subsidies to move into private apartments (low-poverty areas).”

Taking a more negative view of the study’s conclusions, MedPage Today(10/11, Fiore) reports, “Girls in poorer areas may realize some benefit from moving into a better neighborhood, but the change may be harmful for boys.” In fact, “an intervention that offered vouchers to move to Section 8 housing significantly improved distress for girls (P=0.05), but it appeared to be harmful to boys for this outcome (P=0.03).” What’s more, “the intervention offered few benefits for those who came from families with baseline health problems, regardless of their gender,” the study authors reported. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Related Links:

— “Does Neighborhood Income Affect Teens’ Mental Health?, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, October 10, 2012.

BBC News (10/10, Roberts) reports that experts from around the world “are calling for a joint effort to tackle the world’s leading cause of suffering and disability — mental health disorders.” Approximately “450 million people have mental health disorders and more than three-quarters live in developing countries.” Figures from the World Health Organization indicate that 80% of people with mental illnesses in developing countries receive absolutely no treatment. Now, however, “the Canadian government has said it will give nearly $20m (£12.5m) to support 15 new projects designed to improve mental health diagnosis and care in developing countries.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health: Global effort sought, “Michelle Roberts, BBC News, October 10, 2012.

The Huffington Post (10/10, Wood) reports, “Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who struggle with the anger and emotional outbursts of combat trauma are more than twice as likely as other veterans to be arrested for criminal misbehavior,” according to a study published Oct. 1 in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, which, “for the first time, draws a direct correlation between combat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the anger it can cause and criminal misbehavior.” After noting that Veterans Affairs’ Eric B. Elbogen led the study, the Post adds, “The finding that a combination of PTSD and high irritability can lead to criminal misbehavior is important because the treatment for PTSD provided to veterans by the VA and others often doesn’t include therapy designed specifically to reduce irritability, Elbogen told The Huffington Post.” Anger management “might be useful” in treating vets with PTSD, he said.

Related Links:

— “Combat Veterans With PTSD, Anger Issues More Likely To Commit Crimes: New Report, “David Wood, Huffington Post, October 10, 2012.

The New York Times (10/10, A17, Liptak, Subscription Publication) reports, “In a pair of cases argued Tuesday, the Supreme Court considered what to do when people convicted of capital crimes are mentally incompetent and so unable to help their lawyers with challenges to their convictions and sentences.” The Times continues, “The lower courts in the two cases had imposed indefinite stays, saying the proceedings should wait until the prisoners regained their mental competency,” but, the Times reports, there “appeared to be little support among the justices for that approach. Some of them appeared to sense gamesmanship from defense lawyers effectively seeking to make sure that death sentences are never carried out.”

The AP (10/10, Holland) reports, “The Supreme Court seemed inclined Tuesday to eliminate the authority of federal judges to indefinitely delay a death row inmate’s federal appeals in the hope that the convict would become mentally competent enough to help his or her lawyer with the appeals.” While “inmates appealing state death sentences to federal court have a right to a lawyer,” so far “the courts have never said whether the inmates have to be mentally competent enough to help their lawyers with their federal appeals.” Notably, attorneys “on both sides cited a court filing by the American Psychiatric Association which said that up to 90 percent of competency cases are resolved in six to nine months.” The cases in question are Tibbals v. Carter, 11-218 and Ryan v. Gonzales, 10-930.

Related Links:

— “Supreme Court Considers Indefinite Stays of Execution, “Adam Liptak, The New York Times, October 9, 2012.