HealthDay (4/24, Preidt) reports, “Cyberbullying is different than traditional bullying, and anti-bullying programs need to use specific measures to combat online aggression,” according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. For the study, researchers “looked at 17,000 students in grades eight to 12 in Vancouver and found that 25 percent to 30 percent of them reported they had experienced or taken part in cyberbullying, while 12 percent said they had participated in or experienced schoolyard bullying.” Notably, students perceived that “95 percent of what happens online was intended as a joke and only five percent was intended to harm,” the study’s lead author pointed out. She added, “Students need to be educated that this ‘just joking behavior has serious implications.”

Related Links:

— “Cyberbullying May Call for New Prevention Tactics,”Robert Preidt , HealthDay, April 23, 2012.

Monday’s release of a report on mental healthcare services at Veterans Affairs generated extensive, mainly negative coverage for the agency.

The AP (4/24) reports, “Federal investigators reported Monday that nearly half of the veterans who seek mental health care for the first time waited about 50 days before receiving a full evaluation, a much longer lag-time than cited” by Veterans Affairs. The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is scheduled to discuss the inspector general’s report at a hearing on Wednesday. On Monday, the panel’s chair, US Sen. Patty Murray, said the report is “deeply disturbing and demands action from” VA.

USA Today (4/24, Zoroya) quotes from the report (pdf), which says that VA’s “mental health performance data is not accurate or reliable” and that VA has “overstated its success” in providing mental health services to vets. The agency “said it concurred with the investigation results and would move ‘rapidly’ to revamp its process for measuring delays.”

The New York Times (4/24, Dao) “At War” blog notes that VA’s “under secretary for health, Dr. Robert A. Petzel, said in a letter to the inspector general that the VA generally agreed with the recommendations and that it would initiate a timeliness review of its entire medical system, not just the four regions analyzed by the inspector general.” In a statement, VA “said that in addition to hiring new clinicians, it had taken several other measures to improve mental health services, including creating a new office to oversee its mental health programs.”

The Washington Post (4/24, Vogel) reports, “On Thursday, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced that the department will hire 1,900 mental health workers, an increase of more than 9 percent, an action taken based on a review of mental health operations that began in 2011. ‘We have made strong progress, but we need to do more,’ the VA said in a statement released Monday afternoon.”

Modern Healthcare (4/24, Barr, Subscription Publication) notes, “A number of problems exist with the Veterans Health Administration’s tracking and providing of mental-health services, a new report” from VA’s inspector general finds. The “report, which was requested by members of Congress and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, recommends an overhaul of the VHA measurement methods and an examination of whether staffing vacancies at the VHA played a role.”

Experience Of Killing In War Associated With Suicidal Thoughts. HealthDay (4/24, Preidt) reports, “The experience of killing in war is strongly linked with suicidal thoughts,” according to a study published online in the journal Depression and Anxiety. “Researchers analyzed data from a survey of a nationally representative sample of Vietnam War veterans and found that those with more killing experiences were twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts as those with fewer or no experiences of killing.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health help for vets untimely,”Gregg Zoroya , USA Today, April 24, 2012.

HealthDay (4/21, Esposito) reports, “High school and youth football players sustained 14 brain injuries with long-lasting damage in 2011 — the highest number in more than 25 years — and this is a ‘major problem,’ a new report claims.” The data are “based on an annual survey, conducted by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, which collects data on catastrophic football injuries.” While “deaths from brain injuries among high school players have decreased every decade, from 128 in the 1960s to 32 in the 2000s, brain injuries with incomplete recovery reached the double digits in three of the past four years.”

Related Links:

— “‘Catastrophic’ Head Injuries to High School Football Players Rising,”Lisa Esposito , HealthDay, April 20, 2012.

The Time (4/21, Sifferlin) “Healthland” blog reports that “your kids might be getting more exposure to such background TV than you think,” according to a study from the International Communication Association. Investigators “found that the average American kid was exposed to 232.2 minutes of background television per day — when the TV was on, but the child was engaged in another activity.”

The Los Angeles Times (4/21, Healy) “Booster Shots” blog reports, “African American kids’ daily exposure to background TV was 45% higher than the national average — the highest of all ethnic groups polled.”

Related Links:

— “TV On in the Background? It’s Still Bad for Kids,”Alexandra Sifferlin , Time Healthland, April 20, 2012.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (4/23, Torpy, Davis) reports, “A congressional report in February said studies indicate between 15…and 23 percent of the two million who have served in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced” a traumatic brain injury (TBI), “which would mean 300,000 to 460,000 cases. Army experts say those figures are too high.” The US military, however, now quickly takes soldiers with suspected head injuries out of combat duty. Still, some soldiers do not report head injuries, because, as Dr. Inge Thomas, coordinator of the TBI Injury Program at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, explained, they “don’t want to be seen as sissies.”

Related Links:

— “Soldiers’ brain trauma cases disputed,”Bill Torpy , The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 22, 2012.

In an opinion piece in the New York Times (4/22, SR5, Subscription Publication), Richard A. Friedman, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, wrote that while conventional wisdom underlies the belief that the high rate of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is caused by the longevity and severity of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, “there is another factor that might be playing a role in the increasing rates of the disorder, one that has escaped attention: the military’s use of stimulant medications, like Ritalin [methylphenidate HCl] and Adderall [amphetamine, dextroamphetamine mixed salts], in our troops.” Friedman cited data revealed by the Department of Defense that “the number of Ritalin and Adderall prescriptions written for active-duty service members increased by nearly 1,000 percent in five years.” Friedman then called for “a rigorous epidemiologic study of a possible link between stimulants and PTSD in our troops.”

Related Links:

— “Why Are We Drugging Our Soldiers?,”Richard Friedman , The New York Times, April 21, 2012.

HealthDay (4/21, Preidt) reported, “Half-siblings of children with autism are at increased risk for the disorder, according to a recent study” published in Molecular Psychiatry “that provides new genetic clues about autism.” Investigators looked at, among other things, data from “more than 5,000 US families enrolled in a nationwide autism registry.” Researchers “found autism had been diagnosed in 10 percent to 11 percent of full siblings and five…to seven percent of half-siblings.”

Related Links:

— “Half-Siblings of Those With Autism at Raised Risk for Disorder: Study,”Robert Preidt , HealthDay, April 20, 2012.

The Los Angeles Times (4/20, Healy) “Booster Shots” blog reports that a study published online April 19 in Science Magazine suggests that the way in which people deal with deal with regret may make a significant difference in whether they can be healthy and happy in old age. Researchers found that older adults who had experienced late-life depression were more likely to respond to regret with a pounding heart rate and moist hands, much as a healthy young person would respond. In contrast, healthy older adults would respond to regret with serenity. The blog post adds that among 40 older subjects over the age of 50, “whenever regret was evident, the anterior cingulate cortex — a key hub for communication between emotions and rational decision-making — came alive in the happy older adults,” as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging scans.

According to HealthDay (4/20, Marcus), Murali Doraiswamy, MD, of the Duke School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study, pointed out that “the brain patterns seen in depressed participants, if confirmed in larger studies, could potentially help identify people who are vulnerable to late-life depression and in need of counseling.”

Related Links:

— “For a healthy old age, learn to let go of regrets,”Melissa Healy , Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2012.

The Department of Veterans Affairs receives extensive, mostly positive coverage of its Thursday announcement that it will hire 1,900 more mental-health professionals.

The AP (4/20, Tucker) reports that VA “said Thursday it was increasing its staff of mental health workers by roughly 1,900, part of an effort to address a shortage of specialists and to better prepare for the medical needs of veterans returning home from war.” The last point was emphasized in a statement about the new hires from VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. The “move was cheered by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which also called on the VA to reduce its claims backlog and urged President Barack Obama to issue a national call for service for mental-health professionals.” The House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman, US Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), “said the announcement was a good start, but that the VA also needs to strengthen training of employees who encounter veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Related Links:

— “VA to add about 1,900 to mental health staff,”Erick Tucker , Associated Press, April 20, 2012.

The New York Times (4/19, Dao, Subscription Publication) reports, “The Department of Veterans Affairs will announce on Thursday that it plans to hire about 1,600 additional psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other mental health clinicians in an effort to reduce long wait times for services at many veterans medical centers. The hiring…would increase the department’s mental health staff by nearly 10 percent at a time when the veterans health system is being overwhelmed not just by veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, but also by aging veterans from the Vietnam era.” The Times notes that VA’s “announcement comes as the department is facing intensified criticism for delays in providing psychological services to veterans at some of its major medical centers.”

Related Links:

— “Veterans Department to Increase Mental Health Staffing, “James Dao, The New York Times, April 19, 2012.