NPR /Colorado Public Radio (6/1, Whitney) reports, “A study published this month in the Annals of Emergency Medicine by Anthony Weiss with Partners Healthcare in Massachusetts found psychiatric patients in hospital emergency departments waited an average of 11.5 hours before being treated or released.” Weiss said, “The reimbursement for mental health care” in the US “is among the lowest across the different disease states,” which means “it’s not, in some cases, economically viable to support” psychiatric wards. This, in turn, can lead to lead to patients with psychiatric issues spending long amounts of time in emergency departments.

Related Links:

— “As Psychiatric Wards Close, Patients Languish In Emergency Rooms,”Eric Whitney, NPR Colorado Public Radio, May 31, 2012.

Reuters (6/1, Kelland) reports on mental illness and suicide in crisis-stricken countries such as Greece, and the lasting impact it can have even after the crisis is over. The piece quotes sociologist David Stuckler, of Cambridge University, who said, “Austerity can turn a crisis into an epidemic. Job loss can lead to an accumulation of risks that can tip people into depression and severe mental illness which can be difficult to reverse – especially if people are not getting appropriate care. Untreated mental illness, just like other forms of illness, can escalate and develop into a problem that is much more difficult to treat later on.”

Related Links:

— “Analysis: Greeks count mental health cost of a country in crisis,”Kate Kelland, Reuters, May 31, 2012.

HealthDay (5/30, Preidt) reports, “Adult survivors of childhood cancer can suffer emotional problems and reduced quality of life because of the long-term physical effects of their cancer treatment,” according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Investigators looked at “data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study to assess the effects of scarring, disfigurement and persistent hair loss experienced by more than 14,000 adult survivors of childhood cancer.” The researchers found that “survivors with persistent hair loss had an increased risk of anxiety; female survivors with persistent hair loss had an increased risk of depressive symptoms; and survivors with a head or neck, arm or leg disfigurement had an increased risk of depression.”

Related Links:

— “Emotional Woes May Last for Childhood Cancer Survivors,”Robert Preidt, HealthDay, May 30, 2012.

USA Today (5/30, Healy) reports on screening tool Whats MyM3, which “can tell if you’re at increased risk for depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).” Psychiatrist Steven Daviss, MD, of M3 Information, said that “WhatsMyM3 (originally My Mood Monitor) can help adults, whether in treatment or not, ‘monitor their own symptoms and have a view of what’s going on’ in terms of mood and anxiety.” Psychiatrist Robert Post, MD, former chief of biological psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and one of the WhatsMyM3 developers, added that “many of those in need of treatment are seen in a primary care setting; yet their emotional health ‘never really comes up for discussion’ and goes untreated.”

Related Links:

— “Screening for mental illness? Yes, there’s an app for that,”Michelle Healy, USA Today, May 30, 2012.

The Wall Street Journal (5/30, Rockoff, Dooren, Subscription Publication) reports that the Food and Drug Administration is warning that a fake version of Adderall (amphetamine, dextroamphetamine mixed salts) is being sold on the Internet.
The AP (5/30) reports that the agency “says the product purports to be 30-milligram Adderall tablets, but it does not contain the right ingredients. The pills contain the pain drugs tramadol and acetaminophen instead.”
The Boston Globe (5/30, Kotz) reports that the agency, in a media statement, said, “Consumers should be extra cautious when buying their medicines from online sources.” According to the FDA, “Rogue websites and distributors may especially target medicines in short supply for counterfeiting.”

The Los Angeles Times (5/30, Maugh) “Booster Shots” blog reports, “The phony medication can be easily detected. The package label contains several misspellings: ‘NDS’ instead of ‘NDC,’ ‘Aspartrte’ instead of ‘Aspartate,’ and ‘Singel’ instead of ‘Single.'”

Additionally, the NPR (5/30, Knox) “Shots” blog reports, the fake pills are “white instead of peachy-pink. They’re smooth, with none of the markings of the real 30-milligram tablets — the highest dose.” Meanwhile, “they may come in blister packs, while real Adderall is sold only in 100-count bottles.” Reuters (5/30, Yukhananov) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “FDA Warns About Fakes of ADHD Drug Adderall,”Jonathan D. Rockoff , The Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2012.

Reuters (5/31, Norton) reports that according to a study published online May 2 in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, babies born to mothers on antidepressants may be born a few days earlier or may even have seizures shortly after being born. After examining data on some 228,876 babies born in Tennessee, researchers found that second-trimester maternal antidepressant use was associated with infants being born up to five days before their due date. Maternal third-trimester use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants was associated with neonate seizures. Because depression itself is a serious problem, the study authors recommended that women who are on medications for depression speak to their physicians about whether they should discontinue taking antidepressants during pregnancy.

Related Links:

— “More questions on antidepressants during pregnancy,”Amy Norton, Reuters, May 30, 2012.

Reuters (5/31, Seaman) reports that, according to research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, driving while very tired may be nearly as dangerous as driving while drunk.

Related Links:

— “Sleepy, drunken drivers equally dangerous: study,”Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, May 30, 2012.

The New York Daily News (5/29, Blau) reports that in New York City, “dangerously drunken revelers, whose numbers have nearly doubled citywide in the last five years, are now the fifth-leading cause of emergency room visits at public hospitals.” In fact, “teenage binge drinking is a key culprit behind the number of ER visits, which have skyrocketed citywide from 7,958 in 2007 to 15,620 in 2011, city records show.” Binge drinking by teenagers in New York City “has become such a crisis that the Health Department launched a $200,000 ad campaign in 2011 warning of the perils of alcohol abuse.”

Related Links:

— “Drunken teenage revelers now fifth-leading cause of emergency room visits at city’s public hospitals,”Reuven Blau, New York Daily News, May 28, 2012.

On its website, Fox News (5/25, Crees) reported, “Researchers at Portland State University analyzed the blood-alcohol levels in nearly 58,000 suicide cases across 16 states and found that 22 percent of victims were drunk when they died.” Specifically, 24 “percent of men and 17 percent of women who committed suicide had blood-alcohol levels of at least 0.08 g/dL, the legal standard for intoxication,” according to a study published online May 24 in the journal BMJ Injury Prevention. The study “was funded with a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a branch of the National Institutes of Health.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Nearly a quarter of US suicide victims intoxicated at time of death,”Alex Crees, Fox News, May 25, 2012.

In the Huffington Post (5/25), Dr. Susan Blumenthal, a former Assistant Surgeon General, and Deepa Kannappan, a Stanford University health policy intern at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, examined in “The Blog” how America is handling mental health challenges, “a major 21st-century public health challenge.” The two recommended that public policy focus on understanding specific risk factors for various groups, improving education and reducing stigma, and “providing parity for health insurance coverage for mental illness.”

Related Links:

— “Overcoming Stigma and Improving Mental Health in America,”Susan Blumenthal, Huffington Post, May 25, 2012.