The AP (8/6, Fram) reports that yesterday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) “proposed a National Rifle Association-backed bill…that he said would make the federal background check system for gun buyers more effective and bolster programs for treating people with mental illness.” Under the proposed legislation, state and local government would be given “more flexibility to use federal funds to screen for prisoners’ mental problems and improve training for law enforcement officers and others on handling emergencies involving” people with mental illnesses. In addition, the measure “would let civil judges order outpatient treatment for people with mental problems short of committing them to institutions.”

National Journal (8/6, Owens, Subscription Publication) points out that currently, there are “several mental-health-reform measures vying for attention.” Sen. Cornyn’s measure “has joined a comprehensive reform bill from GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, and a narrower Senate bill from GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, as well as Republican Rep. Tim Murphy’s reform bill in the House.” According to National Journal, “It seems that mental-health reform is a uniting topic, one that might actually create momentum in a slow-moving Congress.”

Related Links:

— “LEADING GOP SENATOR OFFERS BILL ON GUNS, MENTAL HEALTH,” Alan Fram, Associated Press, August 5, 2015.

MedPage Today (8/5, Firth) reports that “cancer survivors showing few signs of depression are still at significant risk for suicide, researchers warned” at the World Congress of Psycho-Oncology. Christopher Recklitis, MD, MPH, “speaking last week at the” conference, “reported observing signs of suicidal ideation in two surveys of cancer survivors.”

Related Links:

— “,” Shannon Firth, MedPage Today, August 4, 2015.

TIME (8/5, Sifferlin) reports that a study published Aug. 4 in the Journal of the American Medical Association “suggests commonly used first-line treatments for PTSD in veterans may not work as well as medical experts once thought.” After reviewing “36 randomized control trials of psychotherapy treatments for veterans suffering from PTSD over a 35-year span,” researchers found that even though “up to 70% of the” PTSD patients receiving cognitive processing therapy or prolonged exposure therapy “experienced symptom improvements, around two-thirds of people receiving the treatments still met the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis after treatment.”

Related Links:

— “How Effective Are PTSD Treatments for Veterans?,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, August 4, 2015.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune (8/5, Alpert) reports that yesterday, Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician, “joined together…to offer up legislation they hope will result in a substantial upgrade in mental health services.” The legislation proposed by the senators “would encourage states to break down walls between primary care and mental health care.” One of the bill’s provisions would “clarify that federal privacy laws shouldn’t stop mental health professionals from sharing with family members treatment steps and what Cassidy said are ‘important signs to be on the look out for’ following treatment.” Another would “set up an assistant secretary of mental health and substance abuse post at the Department of Health and Human Services.”

National Journal (8/5, Owens, Subscription Publication) explains that the Murphy-Cassidy legislation “works to integrate physical and mental-health care systems, establishes new grant programs for early intervention, improves mental-health services within Medicare and Medicaid, strengthens enforcement of mental-health parity, and establishes committees and roles to specifically work on mental-illness issues.”

Related Links:

— “Sens. Cassidy and Murphy disagree on gun control, but unify for better mental health treatment,” Bruce Alpert, New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 4, 2015.

On the front of its Science Times section, the New York Times (8/4, D1, Goode, Subscription Publication) reports in a 2,500-word story that studies conducted over the past 50 years have shown that isolation in those who are incarcerated “can worsen mental illness and produce symptoms even in prisoners who start out psychologically robust.” The Times profiles the work of social psychologist Craig Haney, PhD, whose interviews of prisoners at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison “offer the first systematic look at inmates isolated from normal human contact for much of their adult lives and the profound losses that such confinement appears to produce.” Prison mental health issue expert and psychiatrist Terry Kupers, MD, “found in interviews of former Pelican Bay inmates…that even years after their release, many still carried the psychological legacy of their confinement.”

Related Links:

— “Solitary Confinement: Punished for Life,” Erica Goode, New York Times, August 3, 2015.