USA Today (4/7, Zoroya) reports that a RAND survey published online April 6 in the journal Spirituality in Clinical Practice suggests that “chaplains who are part of the Army’s first line of defense against suicide say they need more training in how to prevent soldiers from killing themselves.” After conducting the “online survey of about 4,900 Army chaplains and chaplain assistants and bas[ing] their results on validated responses from about 1,500,” researchers also found that “chaplains and chaplain assistants hold some of the same negative views about therapy that often discourage soldiers from seeing a behavioral health specialist.”

Related Links:

— “Army chaplains need training to help suicidal soldiers,”Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, April 06, 2015.

The Baltimore Sun (4/6) “Maryland Politics” blog reports that Maryland state senators “approved legislation Monday night imposing a moratorium on the sale of powdered alcohol for the next two years.” Health officials have said the product “poses a danger because of its potency and the possibility it could be mixed with alcoholic beverages instead of with water.”

Related Links:

— “Senators approve ban on powdered alcohol sales,”Michael Dresser, The Baltimore Sun, April 06, 2015.

The New York Times (4/7, D4, Goode, Subscription Publication) reports that in wake of the March 24 Germanwings crash, “studies over the last decades have begun to piece together characteristics that many who carry out such violence seem to share, among them a towering narcissism, a strong sense of grievance and a desire for infamy.” James L. Knoll, MD, director of forensic psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University, said, “People want an easily graspable handle to help understand this, to blame something or scapegoat.” However, “to zero in on depression is ‘a low-yield dead end,’ he said, adding, ‘There’s something fundamentally different here, aside and apart from the depression, and that’s where we need to look.’”

Related Links:

— “The Mind of Those Who Kill, and Kill Themselves,”Erica Goode, The New York Times, April 06, 2015.

The Wall Street Journal (4/7, A4, Armour, Subscription Publication) reports that the Administration has proposed a rule under which Medicaid recipients who receive services from managed care organizations and alternative benefit plans would have access to the same mental health and substance abuse benefits provided by private health plans. The proposed rule wouldn’t change state limits on Medicaid fee-for-service plans.

Related Links:

— “Obama Administration Proposes Rules for Medicaid Mental Health Parity,”Stephanie Armour, The Wall Street Journal, April 06, 2015.

According to Medscape (4/9), “The incidence of healthy elderly patients raising the issue of ‘rational suicide’ is on the rise, and clinicians need to be prepared to address it.” Medscape points out that “at the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) 2015 Annual Meeting, a session dedicated to the issue aimed to provide guidance to clinicians who may be faced with elderly patients expressing a desire to die by suicide while they are still relatively healthy and cognitively intact.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)