The Los Angeles Times (1/9, Kaplan) “Science Now” blog reports, “Electronic cigarettes should be subject to the same taxes, marketing restrictions and limitations on public use as traditional tobacco products, according to new guidance” issued in a joint policy statement from the American Society for Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research. The groups “acknowledged that e-cigarettes may improve public health by taking market share away from combustible tobacco products and helping smokers quit.”

However, “until the benefits are proved, the statement said, regulators shouldn’t distinguish between the two kinds of products.” The blog points out that CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden “and other health experts say they fear that e-cigarettes will entice more kids and teens to try smoking.”

Forbes (1/9) contributor Robert Glatter, MD, writes that ASCO President Peter Paul Yu, MD, said, “We are concerned that e-cigarettes may encourage nonsmokers, particularly children, to start smoking and develop nicotine addiction. While e-cigarettes may reduce smoking rates and attendant adverse health risks, we will not know for sure until these products are researched and regulated.” Dr. Yu added, “The FDA has signaled its willingness to regulate e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems, and we urge the agency to follow through on this intention.” The policy statement was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Related Links:

— “Cancer groups urge health officials to be tougher on e-cigarettes,” Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2015.

In a Baltimore Sun (1/7) op-ed, Laura Cain, Esq., a senior attorney with the Maryland Disability Law Center, Linda Raines, chief executive officer of the Mental Health Association of Maryland, and Mike Finkle, executive director of On Our Own in Maryland, contend that coercing patients with serious mental illnesses to undergo treatment may sometimes be more harmful than beneficial. The three write that “despite dramatic treatment advances, we do not have treatment that works for all.”

After quoting National Institute of Mental Health Director Thomas Insel, MD, who wrote of some study patients with schizophrenia, “Clearly, some individuals need to be on medication continually to avoid relapse. At the same time, we need to ask whether in the long-term, some individuals with a history of psychosis may do better off medication,” Cain, Raines and Finkle conclude that “coercion must be the last resort.”

Related Links:

— “Forced treatment not a panacea,” Laura Cain, Linda Raines and Mike Finkle, Baltimore Sun, January 7, 2015.

HealthDay (1/8, Dotinga) reports that according to a meta-analysis published in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics, children “involved in bullying are at higher risk of suicidal thoughts and actions.” After reviewing the results of “47 studies of bullying from around the world, including 18 from the” US, researchers also found that youngsters “who bullied others and were victims themselves were the most troubled of all.”

Related Links:

— “Bullies and Their Victims May Be at Higher Risk of Suicide,” Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, January 7, 2015.

TIME (1/8, Sifferlin) reports that according to a study published online Jan. 7 in JAMA Psychiatry, “women with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a two-fold increased risk for type 2 diabetes.” An additional and “surprising” study finding was that “using antidepressants and having a higher body mass index (BMI) accounted for about half of the increased risk for type 2 diabetes in women with PTSD.”

Related Links:

— “The Link Between Mental Trauma and Diabetes,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, January 7, 2015.

The AP (1/7, Jackson) reports that under a settlement released Jan. 6 between the Pennsylvania Corrections Department and the “Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, which sued the state in federal court in March 2013,” Pennsylvania inmates with serious mental illnesses “who misbehave will be diverted to special treatment units instead of being put in isolated cells.” Potentially affected by the settlement will be some 4,000 of the “nearly 51,000 inmates in the state prison system.”

Related Links:

— “PENNSYLVANIA TO EXPAND TREATMENT FOR MENTALLY ILL INMATES,” Peter Jackson, Associated Press, January 6, 2015.