On its front page, the New York Times (7/31, A1, Risen, Subscription Publication) reports that the American Psychological Association’s board “plans to recommend tough ethics rules that would prohibit psychologists from involvement in all national security interrogations.” The board is expected to “recommend” that the association’s members approve the change at next week’s annual meeting. Association officials “said they believed the proposed ban would be so strict that any psychologist involved” in the interrogations “could be subject to an ethics complaint.”

Related Links:

— “U.S. Psychologists Urged to Curb Questioning Terror Suspects,” James Risen, New York Times, July 30, 2015.

Medscape (7/31, Lowes) reports that physician recruiting firm Merritt Hawkins’ “latest report on recruiting trends shows a weak pulse for one specialty: psychiatry.” Medscape adds, “The number of searches for psychiatrists from April 2014 through March 2015 hit an all-time high in the company’s 27-year history.” Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, a past president of the American Psychiatric Association, “attributes the crisis to systemic problems in healthcare that hit his profession especially hard,” including low reimbursement rates, not enough psychiatry residency slots, and less than full implementation and enforcement of mental health parity rules. APA president Renee Binder, MD, said, “There are no instant fixes to meeting the demand for psychiatrists.”

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (7/31) reports, “High levels of job stress may increase the risk of sick leave due to mental health disorders,” according to research published in the August issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. After analyzing “data from nearly 12,000 workers in Sweden” over the course of five years, researchers found that “workers with demanding jobs, high job strain and little social support at work were at greater risk for mental health sick leave, as were those with unhealthy lifestyles,” such as people who smoke.

Related Links:

— “Job Stress Might Make You Sick, Study Says,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 31, 2015.

The Baltimore Sun (7/29, Cohn) reports that Maryland health officials are seeking a waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to “use federal dollars to pay for Medicaid patients to get substance-abuse and mental-health treatment outside the state’s general hospitals.” Lifting the ban on such spending “would expand the options for people seeking care, allowing them to use community treatment facilities that specialize in those services and tend to be less costly than hospitals, said officials from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.”

Related Links:

— “Maryland seeks to expand access to drug, mental health treatment in the community,” Meredith Cohn, Baltimore Sun, July 28, 2015.

The AP (7/28, Crary) reports that mental illness is often “cited as a possible factor in…high-profile mass” killings. But, Renee Binder, MD, president of the American Psychiatric Association, explained, “Most people who suffer from mental illness are not violent, and most violent acts are committed by people who are not mentally ill.” According to 2102 estimates from the NIMH, “there were an estimated 9.6 million adults in the U.S. – 4.1 percent of the total adult population – experiencing serious mental illness over the previous year.” Dr. Binder pointed out, “If you look at that large pool of people, only a tiny proportion of them will eventually commit violence.” She added, “How are you going to identify them? It’s like a needle in a haystack.”

Related Links:

— “MENTAL HEALTH EXPERTS RESPOND CAREFULLY TO MASS KILLINGS,” David Crary, Associated Press, July 27, 2015.