The AP (5/9) reports, “New York regulators have fined 15 insurers $2.7 million for failing to notify small businesses they were eligible to buy special coverage for mental illnesses and children with serious emotional disturbances. Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky says they are the first fines under Timothy’s Law,” which “requires insurers give small employers the option of purchasing the mental health benefits when they buy or renew basic health insurance plans.”

The Buffalo (NY) News (5/10, Epstein) reports, “State insurance regulators have fined 15 health insurers — including two in Western New York — a total of $2.7 million for failing to comply with the state’s Timothy’s Law requirement that they tell small businesses about mental health coverage options.” These are “the first-ever such penalties against insurers for violating the five-year-old mental health parity law, which became effective in 2007.” The companies “were cited by the Department of Financial Services because they didn’t inform clients that they could buy special insurance coverage for mental illnesses and children with serious emotional disturbances,” which is “a requirement of Timothy’s Law.”

Related Links:

— “NY fines 15 insurers over mental health notices,”AP, The Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2012.

Numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times and the MSNBC website, run positive stories noting that Veterans Affairs is involved with a Facebook campaign that aims to prevent suicides in the veteran populations.
For example, the Los Angeles Times (5/10, Maltais) reports, “Facebook is connecting with military-support and service organizations to offer customized suicide-prevention services for veterans, active service members and their families.” In “conjunction with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the nonprofit organization Blue Star Families, Facebook has unveiled a literal lifeline within the site, with informational and response tools customized for service members and their families.”

On its website, MSNBC (5/10, Golijan) reports that Facebook will offer, “among other things, ways to reach the Veterans Crisis Line, which connects veterans (and their friends and families) to qualified” VA “responders via phone, online chat or text messaging.”

On its website, WRC-TV Washington (5/10, Roberts) points out, however, that “Facebook had already provided suicide prevention measures in the past through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, but did not have the customized services that are now available to military families, personnel, and veterans.”

Related Links:

— “Facebook offers suicide-prevention lifeline for military families,”Michelle Maltais, Los Angeles Times, May 9, 2012.

Medscape (5/9, Brooks) reports, “Eating disorders increase the risk of dying prematurely,” according to a study presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting. “The study involved 2,329 women and 113 men treated in a specialized eating disorder clinic at Helsinki University Central Hospital between 1995 and 2010.” After calculating “relative risks for mortality due to all causes, all external causes of injuries and accidents, and suicide,” researchers found that “patients with an eating disorder were at increased risk of dying prematurely relative to” people without eating disorders.

Related Links:

— “Eating Disorders Linked to Increased Risk for Early Death,”Megan Brooks, Medscape Today, May 8, 2012.

HealthDay (5/9, Dallas) reports that according to a study published in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, “even a friend’s parents can influence whether or not a teen drinks alcohol or uses drugs. If the parents of your teen’s friends are unaware of their child’s drug or alcohol use, or worse, condone it, that may make your child more likely to partake as well.” The study was based on a survey of “about 9,000 ninth-graders from rural school districts about their closest friends, their parents’ discipline and if their parents knew who their friends were.”

Related Links:

— “Friends’ Parents Can Sway Teens’ Odds for Drinking, Smoking,”Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay, May 8, 2012.

MedWire (5/9, Cowen) reports, “The presence of at least one psychotic symptom has a significant negative effect on health status, even among individuals who do not meet diagnostic criteria for psychosis,” according to a study recently published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin. After analyzing “data on 256,445 individuals (55.9% women) from 52 countries who participated in the WHO’s World Health Survey,” researchers found that “the presence of at least one psychotic symptom was associated with a significant reduction in health status scores, with an increasing number of symptoms associated with increasingly poorer scores.”

Related Links:

— “Psychotic symptoms linked to poorer health in general population,” Mark Cowen, MedWire News, May 9, 2012.

Reuters (5/9, Grens) reports that according to a study published online May 7 in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the number of adolescents who experience mania appears to be similar to that of adults with bipolar disorder. After analyzing data on some 10,000 adolescents who were extensively interviewed regarding their behavior and their moods, researchers found that 2.5% of the teens had met diagnostic criteria for both depression and mania within the past 12 months. This compares to National Institute of Mental Health statistics on adults, which found that 2.6% also had symptoms of bipolar disorder within the previous year. The study authors concluded that for many young people, bipolar disorder may begin during their teen years.

Related Links:

— “Bipolar symptoms may begin in teen years,”Kerry Grens, Reuters, May 8, 2012.

Medscape (5/9, Cassels) reports, “As the American Psychiatric Association (APA) kicks off its 2012 Annual Meeting…president-elect Dilip Jeste, MD, is getting set to lead the world’s largest psychiatric association into a new era of ‘positive psychiatry.'” He stated, “We should not be satisfied merely with treating symptoms in patients with mental illness but also with improving their overall well-being.” Dr. Jeste, a geriatric psychiatrist “who is Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences and Director of Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research and Aging at the University of California-San Diego,” acknowledged “that he has a particular interest in the brewing crisis in geriatric mental health care that is being driven by aging baby boomers.”

Related Links:

— “‘Positive Psychiatry’ Focus of New APA President’s Term,”Caroline Cassels, Medscape Today, May 8, 2012.

Reuters (5/8, Pittman) reports on a study published online May 7 in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine based on two surveys of teenagers asking about their use of prescription painkillers. The surveys found that 12.9 percent of those surveyed reported using the painkillers for non-medical reasons. They also found that those who did use the painkillers were also more likely to use marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol. They generally had been prescribed the medicines for a medical reason, but had some left over or used medication prescribed for a family member or friend. Another study appearing in the same journal found that those who used painkillers for non-medical reasons generally reported the first such use as at age 16 or 17.

HealthDay (5/8, Mozes) reports the data indicate misuse starting “earlier than thought.” The study was “co-funded by the university and the US National Institute on Drug Abuse.”

MedPage Today (5/8, Fiore) reports, “An estimated 3% of kids in a national survey were classified as newly incident users and said they started using these drugs at age 16, the highest proportion among all age groups in the study,” the study authors reported. The survey found that “risk appears to be lowest from ages 12 to 14, and again from ages 19 to 21.”

Related Links:

— “One in eight teens misuses prescription painkillers,”Genevra Pittman, Reuters, May 7, 2012.

McClatchy (5/8, Galewitz) reports on a study by Urban Institute researchers, published in the journal Health Affairs, which found that “tens of millions of adults under age 65 – both those with insurance and those without – saw their access to health care worsen dramatically over the past decade,” which is interpreted to mean that “more privately insured Americans are delaying treatment because of rising out-of-pocket costs, while safety-net programs for the poor and uninsured are failing to keep up with demand for care.” The study noted that while the healthcare reform law “won’t necessarily solve all those access problems,” it “does offer several new strategies, such as new payment methods to control rising costs, which could help improve access, but there’s no guarantee they will work.”

Reuters (5/8, Morgan) quotes the researchers, “If the key coverage provisions in the (law) are ruled unconstitutional or repealed, projections indicate that the numbers of uninsured people will grow. Given what we have observed over the past decade, we would be likely to see further deterioration in access to care for all adults — insured and uninsured alike.”

Related Links:

— “Health care increasingly out of reach for millions of Americans,”Phil Galewitz, McClatchy, May 7, 2012.

The Wall Street Journal (5/8, D2, Dooren, Subscription Publication) reports that according to a study published in the May issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, individuals who have chronic depression may be at increased risk for developing dementia, compared to those who do not suffer from depression.

HealthDay (5/8, Preidt) reported that after evaluating “long-term data from more than 13,000 people in California,” researchers found that “people with late-life depression were twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s disease and those with both midlife and late-life depression had a more than threefold increased risk of vascular dementia.”

Related Links:

— “Study Examines Depression and Aging Brain,”Jennifer Corbett, The Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2012.