In continuing coverage, USA Today (5/9, Szabo) reports that last “December, Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., introduced the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.” This past Tuesday, however, Rep. Ron Barber, D-AZ, “introduced his own, more limited bill, supported by a handful of Democrats, called the Strengthening Mental Health in Our Communities Act of 2014.” Rep. Murphy’s bill is considered to be “more sweeping” than the competing Barber bill. Meanwhile, some advocates for people with mental illnesses are concerned that partisanship could sink the chances of passing any mental health reform legislation, while others believe both measures could provide a compromise framework.

In her “Potomac Watch” opinion column in the Wall Street Journal (5/9, A13, Subscription Publication), Kimberly A. Strassel excoriates the Barber bill as an exercise in Democratic partisanship at the expense of people with severe mental illnesses.

Related Links:

— “Congressmen introduce competing mental health bills,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, May 8, 2014.

Medscape (5/9, Cassels) reports that according to research presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, “cannabis use in college students with psychiatric disorders is high and appears to have a significantly greater negative impact on function in this population.” Researchers, after conducting “a cross-sectional study from the Young Adult Behavioral Health Program at Rhode Island Hospital, which receives psychiatric outpatient referrals from eight colleges in the state,” discovered that nearly “25% of college students being treated for a mental illness also abused cannabis, which was linked to significant functional impairment and a greater likelihood of medical leave from school compared with their counterparts who used cannabis but did not have a mental illness.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (5/8, Saker) “Well” blog reports that over the past three years, psychologist Linda Crane, of the College of Mount St. Joseph, along with “fellow Mount St. Joseph psychologist, Tracy McDonough, have built the Schizophrenia Oral History Project,” the first such project “to focus on schizophrenia, they say.” The two psychologists have “so far…recruited two dozen people to sit down with them and a voice recorder, asking their ‘narrators’ simply: What’s it like to be you?”

Related Links:

— “Stories as a Window Into Schizophrenia,” Anne Saker, New York Times, May 8, 2014.

The Wall Street Journal (5/8, A6, Wang, Subscription Publication) reports that according to a study published online May 8 in The Lancet, people with severe mental illnesses appear to be far less likely to commit violent crimes if they are on antipsychotics.

The Los Angeles Times (5/8, Healy) reports that “among the study’s 82,647 subjects–all of them prescribed an antipsychotic or mood-stabilizing drug at some point between 2006 and 2009–routinely taking an antipsychotic drug was linked to a 29% reduced probability of being convicted of a drug-related charge, a 22% decline in convictions for any crime, and a 26% reduction in the likelihood of arrest on suspicion of having committed a violent crime.”

Related Links:

— “Medications Cut Violence Among Mentally Ill in Study,” Shirley S. Wang, Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2014.

The Congressional Quarterly (5/7, Young, Subscription Publication) reports that on Tuesday, “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urged an end to the stigma that often is attached to seeking treatment for psychiatric conditions.” Sebelius remarked, “We need to get to a place in this country where everyone feels comfortable accessing treatment without the fear of getting judged, to a place where anyone feels as comfortable saying that they are going for counseling as they are for a flu shot.” The piece notes that Sebelius “was among the speakers at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day.”

Related Links:

— Congressional Quarterly (requires login and subscription)