MedPage Today (12/10, Clark) reports that the issue of post-operative cognitive decline (POCD) was addressed at a presentation given at the American Society of Anesthesiology’s annual meeting. The condition affects possibly “as many as 15% of patients 60 and older.” Patients with POCD “experience some memory or problem-solving declines within three months of surgery.”

Although some surgeons still remain “skeptical about the syndrome…there is greater recognition among cardiac surgeons, who have dealt for years with the possibility that cardio-pulmonary bypass machines used during heart surgery may be associated with post-op cognitive problems.”

Related Links:

— “Is Surgery a Risk Factor for Cognitive Dysfunction?,” Cheryl Clark , MedPage Today, December 9, 2015.

USA Today (12/10, Szabo) reports that the Treatment Advocacy Center, an organization focusing on the “needs of people with serious mental illness,” is set to release a report today estimating that “people with mental illness are 16 times more likely than others to be killed by police.” The report points out that approximately “one in four fatal police encounters involves someone with mental illness.” This problem is not only “due to a lack of police training,” but also due to the “lack of treatment” for people with serious psychiatric disorders.

Related Links:

— “People with mental illness 16 times more likely to be killed by police,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, December 10, 2015.

Reuters (12/9, Rapaport) reports that approximately 5.8 million US youngsters have received a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), according to a study published online Dec. 8 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

The Washington Post (12/9, Cha) reports in “To Your Health” that the study “shows a surprising 55 percent increase in prevalence of diagnoses among girls – from 4.7 percent to 7.3 percent from 2003 to 2011.” During that same time period, investigators “found an increase in cases across all races and ethnicities but especially in Hispanic children.”

HealthDay (12/9) reports that “in 2011, an estimated 12 percent of US kids aged 5 to 17 had ever been diagnosed with AD/HD,” the study found, an increase of “43 percent from 2003.”

Related Links:

— “Sharp rise in ADHD diagnoses in girls challenges myth that the condition is mostly a boy thing,” Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post, December 9, 2015.

In “To Your Health,” the Washington Post (12/8, Sun) writes that a report by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reveals that “only 23 states increased mental health spending in 2015, compared to 36 states in 2013 and 29 in 2014.” The remaining states “have been ‘treading water’ or going backwards by cutting funding for services, according to the report.”

The AP (12/8, Ronayne) points out that the NAMI report “shows New Hampshire is one of 11 states that has increased mental health funding every year since 2013.” That state’s increased mental health “spending is due in part to a legal settlement New Hampshire signed with the US Department of Justice in 2013 over inadequate community mental health services.” Currently, the New Hampshire “budget includes $23 million for the settlement over the next two years.

Related Links:

— “Three years after Sandy Hook, more states cut mental health funding,” Lena H. Sun, Washington Post, December 8, 2015.

In an opinion piece in the Arizona Republic (12/7), Gurjot K. Marwah, MD, president-elect of the Arizona Psychiatric Society, a district branch of the American Psychiatric Association, writes that “bipartisan” mental health reform legislation in the House and Senate, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act (HR 2646) and the Mental Health Reform Act of 2015 (S.1945), would benefit Americans with mental illnesses and their families by “ensuring coordination of federal mental health resources, more strongly monitoring and enforcing the existing mental health parity law, establishing a national plan to boost the mental health workforce, and increasing research funding for the National Institute of Mental Health.”

If signed into law, “these provisions and others in the two bills will help patients and families struggling with serious mental illness, but who lack access to needed care.” Dr. Marwah called upon the political leadership in Congress to “seize this rare opportunity” to enact mental health system reform.

Related Links:

— “My Turn: Time for a new mental-health approach,” Gurjot K. Marwah, MD, AZ, Arizona Republic, December 7, 2015.