The New York Times (6/22, Carey, Subscription Publication) reports that the US mental health system is under scrutiny in the wake of several shootings and violent incidents committed by young males, particularly from “questions of how best to help them and how to pay for it.”

Even for families with premium health insurance, services and treatments for violent sons are not always covered. Because of this, “many affluent families” are taking their complaints to court in order to force school districts, for instance, to spend more money on special education services and therapeutic schools for troubled youths.

Related Links:

— “Seeing Sons’ Violent Potential, but Finding Little Help or Hope,” Benedict Carey, New York Times, June 21, 2014.

HealthDay (6/21, Preidt) reported that according to a study published online June 18 in the BMJ, medications “used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) do not increase the risk of suicide attempts or suicide, and may actually provide a protective effect.”

Researchers arrived at this conclusion after examining data on “the nearly 38,000 people in Sweden diagnosed with AD/HD between 1960 and 1996” and tracking “their rates of suicidal behaviors between 2006 through 2009, at times when they were taking AD/HD drugs or not taking the medications.”

Related Links:

— “No Sign That ADHD Meds Raise Suicide Risk: Study,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, June 20, 2014.

USA Today (6/21, Zoroya) reported that according to a 300-page report released June 20 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs “are not ready for a potential flood of war-related post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] among troops and veterans, particularly from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.” The IOM panel, which consisted of 16 experts and was chaired by physician Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH of Columbia University in New York, cited as a “key failure…delay in treating those who need therapy, a central element of the current wait-time scandal that led to the May 30 resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.”

According to the Los Angeles Times (6/21, Zarembo), the report found that the US “government spent $3 billion on PTSD treatments for veterans in 2012 and $294 million more for service members,” but neither the Pentagon “nor the VA have consistently collected data on how patients are faring or even what treatments they have received, making it impossible to assess the quality of care.”

What’s more, “the report described PTSD care in the military health system as ‘ad hoc, incremental and crisis driven’ and said the Department of Veterans Affairs had not hired mental health” professionals “fast enough to keep pace with the rising demand.”

Related Links:

— “Flood of PTSD cases coming, scientists warn,” Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, June 20, 2014.

Medscape (6/20) reports that according to a report (pdf) called the “National Health Interview Survey: Early Release Program,” published online June 19 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “the latest figures on how prevalent serious psychological stress is in the United States may appear to show an increase in 2013 over previous years.”

The survey found that “3.7% of adults aged 18 years and older reported they had experienced serious psychological stress in the 30 days before the interviews compared with 2.7% in 2007 and 3.4% in 2011.”

The study’s first author, Jeannine S. Schiller, MPH, from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, pointed out, however, that these “estimates need to be taken in context not only for stress but also for other health conditions.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

In the “Your Money Adviser” column in the New York Times (6/20, Subscription Publication), Ann Carrns discusses “a self-assessment test from Ohio State University to help detect early signs of dementia.” Called the Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE), “the four-page test can be completed in about 10 to 15 minutes by patients at home, or while in the waiting room” at a physician’s office.

The test, which is available as a free download from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s “website, is now used at doctors’ offices nationally.” Poor tests results are not automatically predictive of dementia, but instead indicate a need for more comprehensive psychological and neurological testing.

Related Links:

— “A Test for the Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease,” Ann Carrns, New York Times, June , 2014.19