The Kaiser Health News (7/9, Pockros) interviewed former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), who discussed his efforts to promote mental health treatment. Kennedy said, “Today we are reacting to an epidemic of untreated mental illness.” He recommended building “a chronic care or intensive care system so that people are treated and cared for, and not abandoned.” He favors “a chronic care approach to” the treatment of mental illness.

Related Links:

— “Patrick Kennedy On Moving Mental Health Policy Out Of ‘The Dark Ages’,” Alana Pokros, Kaiser Health News, July 9, 2015.

The Tampa Bay (FL) Times (7/10) reports in depth on depression as a common, yet often unexpected side effect of significant medical treatment or illness. According to the article, a 2011 report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said that 34 million US adults – 17 percent of all US adults – “had a mental health disorder such as anxiety or depression along with a chronic health condition such as diabetes, heart disease, back pain or asthma.” The Times notes that the National Cancer Institute estimates 25 percent of cancer patients experience depression, and the American Heart Association estimates 33 percent of all heart attack patients do the same.

Related Links:

— “Depression common after serious illness or medical treatments, and should be treated,” Irene Maher, Tampa Bay Times, July 9, 2015.

The AP (7/9, Tanner) reports, “War-time suicide attempts in the Army are most common in newer enlisted soldiers who have not been deployed, while officers are less likely to try to end their lives,” according to a study published online July 8 in JAMA Psychiatry. After analyzing “records on nearly 10,000 suicide attempts among almost one million active-duty Army members during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, from 2004 to 2009,” researchers also found that suicide “attempts are more common among women and those without a high school diploma.”

The CBS News (7/9, Welch) website reports that “rates of attempted suicide were lower among black, Hispanic, and Asian soldiers,” the study found. The study’s lead author “said that future research will focus on the reasons why women are at a greater risk of attempted suicide, why the risk is lower among deployed soldiers, and which mental health disorders carry the highest risk.”

Related Links:

— “SUICIDE ATTEMPTS MOST COMMON IN NEWER SOLDIERS, STUDY FOUND,” Lindsey Tanner, Asssociated Press, July 8, 2015.

The CBS Evening News (7/8, story 7, 2:30, Pelley) reported, “America’s heroin problem is getting worse. There’s a new report from the CDC that says in just six years heroin use has risen 150 percent to more than a half million Americans, and over a decade, use by women alone is up 100 percent.” As a result, there are increasing numbers of babies born addicted to heroin.

USA Today (7/9, Ungar) reports that admissions of heroin- or opioid-addicted infants “to US neonatal intensive care units nearly quadrupled from 2004 through 2013, from seven to 27 per 1,000 admissions, a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found.” In the meantime, “the overall incidence nearly doubled in four years nationally, with one affected baby born every 25 minutes by 2012,” according to a study published in the Journal of Perinatology.

Related Links:

— “Born into suffering: More babies arrive dependent on drugs,” Laura Unger, USA Today, July 8, 2015.

Modern Healthcare (7/8, Dickson, Subscription Publication) reports that “inpatient psychiatric facilities are pushing back at attempts by the CMS” to implement “new quality metrics that will affect psychiatric facility payments starting in fiscal 2018.”

While some behavioral health facilities have “jeered” the proposed measures, particularly those regarding tobacco use treatment, “others were thrilled with the quality measure recommendations.” For example, American Psychiatric Association CEO Saul Levin, MD, said, “Given the prevalence of tobacco use among persons with mental illness and the detrimental effects of tobacco use on overall health, the (American Psychiatric Association) is in full agreement that clinicians should provide tobacco use screening and offer treatment.”

Dr. Levin added, “While inpatient psychiatric facilities may not be primarily established to provide substance use treatment, the lack of such treatment during periods of hospitalization impedes the effectiveness of psychiatric treatment and the likelihood of recovery.”

Related Links:

— “Psychiatric facilities push back on new CMS quality measures,” Virgil Dickson, Modern Healthcare, July 7, 2015.