The New York Times (10/8, Dao, Subscription Publication) reports that “nearly half of all suicides in the military having been committed with privately owned firearms.” In response, the Pentagon is “developing a suicide prevention campaign that will encourage friends and families of potentially suicidal service members to safely store or voluntarily remove personal firearms from their homes.” In addition, “Congress appears poised to enact legislation that would allow military mental health counselors and commanders to talk to troops about their private firearms” and would amend a 2011 law that prohibited DOD from collected on legally owned firearms. Sen. Inhofe “who sponsored the original 2011 restrictions, said he would support the new amendment ‘if it clears up any confusion.'”

Related Links:

— “As Military Suicides Rise, Focus Is on Private Weapons,”James Dao, The New York Times, October 7, 2012.

There was a fair amount of coverage of a new report (10/3) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that teen drunk driving has declined. Much of the coverage has focused on the reasons behind the trend.

Bloomberg News (10/3, Lopatto) says that the CDC report found that “drunk driving among US teens fell 54 percent in the past two decades, a trend helped by laws to curb underage alcohol consumption and higher gas prices keeping high school students off the road.” Citing the report in the Atlanta-based CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the article details that “in 2011, 10 percent of high school students reported drinking and driving, compared with 22 percent in 1991.” According to Bloomberg News, “people ages 16 to 20 are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when their blood alcohol is .08 percent, the legal limit in many states,” the report found.

Reuters (10/3, Beasley) quotes CDC Director Thomas Frieden, who told reporters, “We’ve seen really good progress.” He added, “We’re moving in the right direction, but we need to keep up the momentum.” However, the article also notes that the CDC report also showed that last year, almost 1 million high school students consumed alcohol before getting into the driver’s seat.

In its “Booster Shots” blog, the Los Angeles Times (10/3, Brown) details that “the CDC analysis was compiled from data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey.” The blog describes that the “American public and private school students in grades 9 through 12 volunteered to answer an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire that asked about their alcohol use (including binge drinking, defined as having had five or more drinks in a row on at least one day in the preceding 30 days) as well as whether they drink and drive.” The article adds, “boys were more likely to drink and drive than girls, and white and Latino students were more likely to drink and drive than black students.”

Related Links:

— “Teen Drunk Driving Falls on High Gas Prices, Less Alcohol, “Elizabeth Lopatto, Bloomberg, October 3, 2012.

Medscape (10/3, Johnson) reports, “The treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) should go beyond the goal of symptom relief to include a more global target of improving patients’ overall and occupational functioning,” a shift that “is reflected in new consensus recommendations currently being finalized by the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT).” Network executive chairman Raymond Lam, MD, of the University of British Columbia, told delegates at the Canadian Psychiatric Association’s 62nd Annual Conference, “The ideal outcome really should be functional recovery.”

Medscape (10/2, Johnson) reports, “Parents who lose a child to suicide have more mental and physical health problems in the two years preceding their child’s death, compared with those whose children do not die by suicide,” according to a study presented at the Canadian Psychiatric Association 62nd Annual Conference. After comparing “outcomes in suicide-bereaved parents (n = 1415), parents whose children had died in motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) (n = 1132), and nonbereaved parents (n = 1415),” investigators found that “suicide-bereaved parents were more likely than MVA-bereaved parents to have had adverse health and social markers prior to their child’s death — including depression (ARR, 1.30), cardiovascular disease (ARR, 1.54), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (ARR, 1.68), other physical disorders (ARR, 1.32), and low income (ARR, 1.33).”

In continuing coverage, a story for the “Uncounted Casualties” series by the Austin (TX) American-Statesman (10/2) reports, “Although US military forces have left Iraq and are winding down in Afghanistan, the buildup in mental health services for soldiers who served there continues to surge.” For example, Veterans Affairs has been adding mental health workers. But a recent review by VA’s “Office of Inspector General found that 12 percent, or 1.2 million appointments, had wait times of up to 60 days.” The Statesman adds, “Still, the VA…fully intends to become the national leader in providing specialized psychotherapy on a massive scale to treat PTSD, said Bradley Karlin, the VA’s national mental health director for psychotherapy and psychogeriatrics.” Karlin’s agency recently announced that $100 million will be spent to study treatments for both PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.

Related Links:

— “Treating injuries that cannot be seen, “American-Statesman Investigative Team, Statesman.com, October 1, 2012.

HealthDay (10/2, Preidt) reports, “Five years after being released from juvenile detention, more than 45 percent of males and nearly 30 percent of females still had psychiatric disorders,” according to a study published online Oct. 1 in the Archives of General Psychiatry. For the study, researchers “initially interviewed nearly 1,200 males and more than 650 females, aged 10 to 18, while they were at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago. The participants were interviewed again as many as four times and up to five years later.”

MedPage Today (10/2, Petrochko) reports, “Former female prisoners had higher rates of major depression (adjusted odds ratio 1.59, 95% CI 1.22 to 2.08), while former male prisoners had higher rates of substance use disorders (aOR 2.61, 95% CI 1.96 to 3.47),” researchers found. “The study was supported from grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health…the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, [and] the NIH,” among others.

Related Links:

— “Psychiatric Disorders Often Persist in Juvenile Offenders, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, October 1, 2012.

The New York Times (10/2, A22, Tavernise, Subscription Publication) reports, “Americans of working age are going to the doctor less frequently than they were 10 years ago, according to a new report by the Census Bureau.” The report indicates that “in 2010, people age 18 to 64 made an average of 3.9 visits to doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, down from 4.8 visits in 2001.”

The Washington Times (10/2, Cunningham) reports that Americans “may be hesitating more before they rush to the doctor’s office with mild symptoms. Employers have trimmed back on health insurance plans as they grow more expensive, sending more employees into high-deductible plans that require them to pay more out of pocket at the doctor’s office.”

The Houston Chronicle (10/2, Ackerman) reports, “Women were more likely than men to have seen a medical [practitioner] in 2010 — 78 percent vs. 67 percent.”

The Baltimore Sun (10/2, Walker) “Picture of Health” blog reports, “Hispanics were the least likely racial or ethnic group to see a medical [professional], as 42 percent never visited one during the year.”

Related Links:

— “Doctor Visits Dropping, New Census Figures Show, “Sabrina Tavernise, The New York Times, October 1, 2012.

HealthDay (9/29, Salamon) reported, “A sophisticated genetic test sometimes used during pregnancy can’t always predict if chromosomal abnormalities will cause problems in children, leading some mothers to label the information ‘toxic knowledge’ they wish they hadn’t received,” according to the results of a 54-participant study recently published online in the journal Genetics in Medicine. Investigators “found that expectant mothers receiving bad news about a genetic test called a DNA microarray — more often used after birth to identify chromosomal problems in children with unexplained delays or defects — reported mostly negative responses, ranging from feeling blindsided to needing support to digest the information and make critical decisions about their pregnancies.” The study’s author pointed out that “the women’s reactions challenge the notion that knowledge is power, especially when that knowledge pertains to ambiguous information about an unborn baby’s health.”

Related Links:

— “Prenatal Test Presents Dilemmas to Expectant Mothers, “Maureen Salamon, HealthDay, September 28, 2012.

Reuters (10/1, Pittman) reports that, according to research published in Pediatrics, hospitalizations due to serious injuries caused by child abuse may be increasing.

The NBC News (10/1, Fox) “Vitals” blog reports that investigators “looked at statistics on children admitted to hospitals for serious injuries.”

MedPage Today (10/1, Phend) reports, “Hospitalization for abuse-related injury rose 4.9% overall among children 18 and under over the 12-year span from 1997 through 2009.” The researchers found that kids “were increasingly likely to die from these injuries before discharge as well.” The authors point out that the findings “are in sharp contrast to data from child protective services,” which indicate that child abuse declined between 1992 and 2009.

Related Links:

— “Injuries due to child abuse on the rise, “Genevra Pittman, Reuters, October 1, 2012.

In a series of reports called “Uncounted Casualties,” the Austin (TX) American- Statesman (9/30) sought to answer the question, “What caused the deaths of hundreds of Texas veterans who had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan?” According to the American-Statesman, the US Department of Veterans Affairs “doesn’t track individual causes of death for its veterans.” The paper said, however, that its reporters “determined causes of death for 266 veterans and consulted with Dennis Perrotta, a former Texas state epidemiologist, to test their methodology and conclusions.”

Kemp Says VA Is Trying To Do More To Gather Suicide Data. In a Monday report for “Uncounted Casualties,” the Austin (TX) American-Statesman (10/1) reports that its “investigation into the deaths of 266 Texans who served during the Iraq or Afghanistan wars show that 45 committed suicide, making it the fourth-leading cause of death behind illness, accidents and drug-related deaths.” In 2008, a “CBS News investigation revealed an ‘alarming’ rate of suicide among veterans and a failure by the VA to gather the nationwide data needed to track the deaths.” But Jan Kemp , who heads VA’s suicide prevention programs, “said the VA is building a joint suicide database with the Defense Department so they can share information.” The American-Statesman also notes that VA has been trying to improve its mental healthcare system.

Researchers Think Warfare Changes Produce High Number Of Psychological Casualties. Another “Uncounted Casualties” story for the Austin (TX) American-Statesman (9/30) said that while “mental health researchers have not been able to pinpoint exactly why the current conflicts are producing seemingly higher numbers of psychological casualties, they point to the changing nature of modern warfare. Raymond Scurfield, a professor of social work at the University of Southern Mississippi and Vietnam veteran who has written extensively about PTSD, singled out multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, which are unique in American military history.” Scurfield “also said the unpredictable violence and sudden bomb blasts that characterize warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan can take a toll on service members’ psyches.”

Related Links:

— “Simple query prompted extensive investigation, “American-Statesman Investigative Team, Statesman.com, September 29, 2012.