The New York Times (9/2) reports in its “Well” blog of potential risks to newborn babies stemming from pregnant women’s use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants such as Prozac (fluoxetine). The piece notes that up to “14 percent of pregnant women take antidepressants,” and the FDA has warned that Paxil (paroxetine) could be responsible for birth defects. The blog posting notes that the “prevailing attitude among doctors has been that depression during pregnancy is more dangerous to mother and child than any drug could be. Now a growing number of critics are challenging that assumption.”

The paper points out that three new studies have highlighted concerns about long-term developmental effects for SSRIs, including one by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, who noted in April “that boys with autism were nearly three times more likely to have been exposed to S.S.R.I.s before birth than typically developing boys.”

Related Links:

— “Are Antidepressants Safe During Pregnancy?,” Roni Caryn Rabin, New York Times, August , 2014.

Medscape (8/29) reports that “a new integrated program for treating depression in cancer patients is reported to be ‘strikingly more effective’ at both reducing depressive symptoms and improving quality of life than the current standard of care.” This “approach, known as Depression Care for People with Cancer (DCPC), was tested in 2 clinical trials: the SMaRT-2 study, reported in the Lancet , and the SMaRT-3 study, reported in the Lancet Oncology.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Medscape (8/29, Nelson) reports that research published online in the Lancet Psychiatry suggests that approximately “three-quarters of cancer patients with major depression are not being treated for it.” Researchers found that “the prevalence of major depression was highest in patients with lung cancer (13.1%), followed by gynecologic cancer (10.9%), breast cancer (9.3%), colorectal cancer (7.0%), and genitourinary cancer (5.6%).” Altogether, “73% of these patients were not receiving any treatment for depression.” BBC News (8/27, Mundasad) and Renal and Urology News (8/29) also cover the story.

Related Links:

— “Cancer patients with depression ‘are being overlooked’,” Smitha Mundasad, BBC News, August 27, 2014.

Medscape (8/29, Brauser) reports that research released Aug. 27 “from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) shows that 4.3% of US teens had a serious emotional or behavioral difficulty between 2010 and 2012 for which they sought nonmedication mental health services.” What’s more, “71% of these kids, who were between the ages of 12 and 17 years, received these services during the previous six months, and boys were more likely than girls to receive these types of services overall and specifically within school settings.”

The study authors, led by the CDC’s Lindsey I. Jones, MPH, concluded, “This finding may be due, in part, to the higher prevalence among boys of externalizing and developmental conditions such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorders, which negatively affect their school achievement and participations.”

Related Links:

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

On its front page, USA Today (8/28, A1, Jervis) reports in a 2,500-word story, part of is “The Cost of Not Caring” series, that “more than 124,000 – or one-fifth – of the 610,000 homeless people across the USA suffer from a severe mental illness, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.” These people are dealing with “schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or severe depression — all manageable with the right medication and counseling but debilitating if left untreated.” Strategies now “gaining favor in treating the homeless who are mentally ill are the ‘Housing First’ approach, which puts homeless individuals into housing first, then treats their ailments, and permanent-supportive housing, which couples housing with counseling and access to” medications. These strategies, however, are hampered due to a lack of political commitment as well as Federal dollars.

Related Links:

— “Mental disorders keep thousands of homeless on streets,” Rick Jervis, USA Today, August 27, 2014.