In a nearly 4,000-word article on its front page, the Washington Post (7/1, A1, Leaming, Verma) reports that a Washington Post analysis found that this year police have shot and killed 124 people “in the throes of mental or emotional crisis,” about a fourth of those killed by police in the first half of the year.

While most of those individuals were armed, the officers usually “were called by relatives, neighbors or other bystanders” concerned about erratic behavior, not about crime. Over half of the killings involved police agencies that do not train officers in how to deal with people with mental illness, and in some cases, police tactics “quickly made a volatile situation even more dangerous.”

Current and former police chiefs say that police are being called on to cover for “severe budget cuts for psychiatric services” and that the killings won’t get better “without large-scale police retraining.”

Related Links:

— “DISTRAUGHT PEOPLE,
DEADLY RESULTS,” Wesley Lowery, Kimberly Kindy, Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post, June 30, 2015.

HealthDay (6/30, Reinberg) reports that research suggests that “women who have been through a traumatic event or developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) face an increased risk of heart attack or stroke.” Investigators looked at data on nearly 50,000 women. The researchers found that “women with severe PTSD” had “a 60 percent higher risk of heart attack or stroke compared to women who hadn’t experienced any trauma.” Meanwhile, “the risk was increased 45 percent for women who experienced a traumatic event but didn’t develop PTSD.” The findings were published online June 29 in Circulation. LiveScience (6/30) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Trauma, PTSD May Raise Women’s Odds of Heart Attack, Stroke,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, June 29, 2015.

Reuters (6/29, Doyle) reported that a study published online June 29 in JAMA Pediatrics examines data derived from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence.

The Huffington Post (6/29, Pearson) reported, “More than one-third of US children experienced some form of physical assault between 2013 and 2014…and the majority of those incidents were at the hands of siblings or peers,” researchers found. The study also revealed that “five percent of children experienced some kind of sexual offense in the past year, while 1.4 percent experienced a full-on sexual assault.” Adolescent girls appeared to be at the “highest risk for sexual assault or abuse.”

Related Links:

— “Nearly four of 10 U.S. kids exposed to violence,” Kathryn Doyle, Reuters, June 29, 2015.

Citing National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism statistics, the Wall Street Journal (6/29, Ward, Subscription Publication) reports that personalized feedback through electronic means, text message or the Web, may be able to reduce alcohol intake among students. The Wall Street Journal adds that the electronic interventions may mimic in-person techniques, which have about a 13 percent success rate in reducing drinking.

Related Links:

— “How to Cut Student Drinking,” Lisa Ward, Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2015.

In a 1,000-word article, Prevention Magazine (6/27, Corbett) reported that a 2015 report released by the National Institutes of Health and published in JAMA Psychiatry found that “nearly one-third of American adults at some point in their life have” an alcohol use disorder, “and only 20% seek treatment.”

Related Links:

— “6 Sneaky Signs You Drink Too Much,” Holly C. Corbett, Prevention, June 26, 2015.