TIME (1/6, Sifferlin) reports that research “published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics suggests the primary cause of the increase of autism spectrum disorder is actually due to changes in how the disease is diagnosed.” The study, which involved 677,915 Danes born between the years 1980 and 1991, revealed that “significantly more children were diagnosed with autism in 1995 and on, and the team was able to determine that 60% of the increase could be attributed to” broadened changes in diagnostic criteria that took place in 1994 in Denmark. Time also points out that “in May 2013, the American Psychiatric Association published new guidelines for diagnosing autism spectrum disorders in” the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

Related Links:

— “This May Explain the Rise in Autism Diagnoses,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, January , 2015.5

On the front of its Marketplace section, the Wall Street Journal (1/6, B1, Walker, Subscription Publication) reports on new technology, including smartphone apps and software designed to analyze voices to help treat people with mental health disorders or to determine when depression may be interfering with treatment compliance for another medical condition, such as diabetes or heart disease. Recently, the National Institutes of Health awarded investigators at the Harvard School of Public Health some $2.42 million for the development of an app that will help track patterns of sleep in people with mental health issues.

Related Links:

— “Can a Smartphone Tell if You’re Depressed?,” Joseph Walker, Wall Street Journal, January, 2015. (Subscription required)

The AP (1/5) reported that psychiatry professor Anthony Tobia, MD is using a “Psy-feld” teaching tool to instruct medical students at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University about psychiatric disorders. Using the television series Seinfeld, “Tobia has created a database of teaching points from all the show’s episodes.” Medical students in their third and fourth years “are assigned to watch two episodes a week and then gather to discuss the psychopathology demonstrated on each.”

The Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger (1/2, Clark) reported that the premise behind “Psy-feld” is that “students have an ‘aha’ moment, the kind that doesn’t come from a PowerPoint presentation, said Tom Draschil, one of the psychiatric department’s chief residents.” Dr. Draschil explained that “the funnier a program is, the more teaching points it has for psychiatry.”

Related Links:

— “AT MED SCHOOL, ‘SEINFELD’ ABOUT MORE THAN NOTHING,” Associated Press, January 2, 2015.

Reuters (1/3, Seaman) reports that a JAMA Psychiatry study researchers found that US teens say they have easy access to guns even if they have a risk of suicide or known mental health problems. In the study, 41 percent of teens in general stated that they had easy access to guns, the same percentage of teens with a history of suicide attempts or mental illness that reported having easy access to guns. According to Reuters, the study collected data during a three-year period from 2001-2004 and involved 10,123 US teens between 13 and 18 years old. The Fox News (1/4) website also covered the story.

Related Links:

— “U.S. teens have same firearm access regardless of suicide risk,” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, January 2, 2015.

The AP (1/5, Crary) reports that “widows, widowers, parents, siblings and children are sharing accounts of their grief as part of the largest study ever of America’s military families as they go through bereavement.” The Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Maryland-based Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences is conducting the study, which includes “about 2,000 people” and has gone on for about three years. Those who can participate are members of the “families of the more than 19,000 service members from all branches of the military who have died on active duty since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, regardless of whether the death resulted from combat, accident, illness, suicide or other causes.”

Related Links:

— “MAJOR STUDY OF BEREAVED MILITARY FAMILIES UNDERWAY,” David Crary, Associated Press, January 4, 2015.