In an editorial, the Washington Post (7/26) wrote, “The incarceration of mentally ill inmates is a national epidemic,” which is resulting in “pressure and proposals to divert some people charged with nonviolent and minor crimes to treatment rather than a cell.” While the Post acknowledges Montgomery County, MD has been “a laggard when it comes to devising innovative alternatives to warehousing the mentally ill behind bars,” it praises “key officials” for creating a task force to establish a mental health court to “channel some nonviolent offenders into community-based programs.”

Related Links:

— “A better option for the mentally ill,” Washington Post, July 25, 2015.

TIME (7/25, Sifferlin) reported, “Boys and girls as young as age eight can experience dissatisfaction with their bodies that can predict their risk for eating disorders later in life,” according to a study published in the July issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. After following “about 6,000 children until they were 14 years old,” researchers found that “at age eight, 5% of girls and 3% of boys were unhappy with their bodies.”

Related Links:

— “Kids Are Unhappy With Their Bodies as Young as Age 8,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, July 24, 2015.

Medscape (7/24, Melville) reported that a new meta-analysis published in The Lancet Psychiatry suggests that “smoking itself may play a causative role in the development of psychotic illness.” The analysis, which “included 61 studies with data through 2014 involving 14,555 tobacco smokers and 273,162 nonsmokers,” including international populations, found that “57% of people with a first episode of schizophrenia were already smokers, for an overall odds ratio of 3.22 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.63 – 6.33), with some evidence of publication bias.” In addition, “daily smokers were still approximately twice as likely to develop new psychotic disorders as nonsmokers (relative risk, 2.18; 95% CI, 1.23 – 3.85)” and developed such disorders about one year earlier than nonsmokers.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The AP (7/24, Merchant) reported, “Suicide is the leading cause of death in jails after natural illness.” People who are incarcerated “take their own lives three times more often than the average population, according to a 2010 study cited in the National Study of Jail Suicide.” A 2013 article on suicide in Texas jails that appeared in the LBJ Journal of Public Affairs said that jail environment stressors include “isolation, loss of control, conflict with other inmates or staff, frustration with legal proceedings, or distress and shame over incarceration.”

Related Links:

— “TEXAS JAIL DEATH FOCUSES NEW ATTENTION ON INMATE SUICIDES,” Nomaan Merchant, Associated Press, July 24, 2015.

The Guardian (UK) (7/23) reports that research published in BMJ Open suggests that individuals “over 50 who are healthy, active, sociable and highly educated are at more risk of harmful drinking than their less well-off peers.”

The Telegraph (UK) (7/24) reports that “the findings are based on responses from 9,000 over 50s who took part in the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing.” While the investigators “found that heavy drinking was no linked to feeling lonely or depressed, men who lived on their own were more likely to consume harmful amounts of alcohol.”

Related Links:

— “Harmful drinking among middle-class over-50s is a ‘hidden phenomenon’,” Haroon Siddique, The Guardian, July 23, 2015.