The AP (6/7) reports that DOJ released a report Friday that found Los Angeles County jails “have ‘deplorable’ conditions that have contributed to a dramatic increase in suicides” and found “there is inadequate mental health care and supervision to identify suicidal inmates or prevent them from becoming suicidal.” The report found 15 inmates killed themselves in two and a half years and cited “‘dimly lit, vermin-infested, noisy, unsanitary, cramped and crowded’ conditions” in the jails. The DOJ report said the Sheriff’s Department had completed some reforms required by a 2002 agreement, but said “‘serious systemic deficiencies’ remain.”

The Los Angeles Times (6/7, Chang) reports that DOJ said Friday it wants “court oversight of how the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department treats those inmates,” which “marks a significant escalation by the federal government in its efforts to improve conditions in the nation’s largest jail system.” The Times says the county disputes DOJ’s findings “and defended its treatment of mentally ill inmates.”

The Wall Street Journal (6/7, Phillips, Subscription Publication) reports that Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels, head of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement, “The Los Angeles County Jails have an obligation to provide conditions of confinement that do not offend the Constitution and to take reasonable measures to protect inmates from harm.”

Related Links:

— “Report: Mental health care at LA jails lacking,” Associated Press, Sacramento Bee, June 6, 2014.

On its front page Saturday, the New York Times (6/7, A1, Schwirtz, Santora, Belluck, Subscription Publication) examined the system for post-incarceration mental healthcare against the backdrop of a New York man accused of stabbing a young boy to death and leaving another young child critically wounded. The Times says that even though “the numbers of inmates with mental illness have surged in jails and prisons across the country in recent years,” their mental healthcare and fitness for society “can be haphazard” afterward. New York state “has more tools” than most, yet “there are many ways for mentally unstable people who might be dangerous to slip through the cracks.”

Related Links:

— “Stabbing Case Shows Lapses in Treatment for the Mentally Ill,” Michael Schwirtz, New York Times, June 6, 2014.

MedPage Today (6/6, Neale) reports that research published online in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that “the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) before a stroke may worsen the event for some patients.” Researchers found that “among patients with hemorrhagic strokes, use of an SSRI in the 90 days before symptom onset was associated with a greater likelihood of the stroke being severe (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.08-1.84) and of dying within 30 days (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.17-2.18).” But, in “those with ischemic strokes…SSRI use was not associated with either outcome.”

Related Links:

— “Stroke Rounds: SSRIs May Worsen Hemorrhagic Strokes,” Todd Neale, MedPage Today, June 5, 2014.

Medscape (6/6, Anderson) reports that according to a study published online June 4 in JAMA Psychiatry, “major depressive disorder (MDD) with atypical features, including increased appetite and hypersomnia, is linked to obesity and other measures of adiposity.” The study of 3,054 adults in Switzerland also revealed that “the elevated body mass index (BMI) in patients with atypical depression is not a temporary phenomenon but persists after depressive symptoms remit and is not attributable to new episodes.”

Related Links:

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The Royal Oak (MI) Daily Tribune (6/4, Murray) reports that according to a review (6/4) published June 5 in the new England Journal of Medicine, Nora Volkow, MD, director of the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and colleagues argue that marijuana may “reduce teens’ IQ, that it impairs driving, and that today’s version is more potent than in the past.” Dr. Volkow stated, “It is important to alert the public that using marijuana in the teen years brings health, social, and academic risk.” She added, “Physicians in particular can play a role in conveying to families that early marijuana use can interfere with crucial social and developmental milestones and can impair cognitive development.”

HealthDay (6/4, Thompson) reports that because the drug “is potentially addictive, proven to contribute to fatal motor-vehicle crashes, and can disrupt the brain function and learning of young users,” its legalization “will lead to the sort of nationwide health problems now attributed to alcohol and tobacco, said Volkow.”

MedPage Today (6/5, Gever) reports that Volkow and “and colleagues based their conclusions on findings in 77 previously published papers.” The review also “found an increased likelihood of anxiety and depression, increased likelihood of psychosis, worsened symptoms of schizophrenia, and earlier onset of psychotic events.”

Related Links:

— “National study links marijuana use to adverse effects,” Diana Dillaber Murray, Royal Oak Daily Tribune, June 4, 2014.