A new CDC report on alcohol poisoning deaths in the US was covered by at least two major US newspapers and by several wires and online sources. All sources feature quotes from one or more CDC officials. USA Today (1/7, Painter) reports that a new report from the CDC indicates that approximately six times per day, “someone in the USA dies of alcohol poisoning after drinking too much in a single binge.” Ileana Arias, the CDC’s deputy principal director, said, “Alcohol poisoning is caused by consuming a very large amount of alcohol in a very short amount of time.” Arias added, “The more your drink, the more you are at risk.”

According to the New York Times (1/7, A12, Tavernise, Subscription Publication), this “report is the first in a decade by the” CDC “to tally alcohol poisonings for the entire American population. Most previous analyses looked at certain groups, in particular young people.” The CDC “found that an average of 2,221 people died of alcohol poisoning annually between 2010 and 2012.” The agency “described death from alcohol poisoning as ‘a bigger problem than previously thought,’ but said it was impossible to tell whether the death rate had risen because researchers had changed how they track the data in recent years.”

Related Links:

— “Report: Binge drinking kills 6 a day – and most are men,” Kim Painter, USA Today, January 6, 2015.

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.