In a 2,000-word article, the New York Times (6/17, D1, Belluck, Subscription Publication) reports that “many women” suffering from maternal mental illness “have been afraid to admit to terrifying visions or deadened emotions, believing they should be flush with maternal joy or fearing their babies would be taken from them.” However, “advocacy groups on maternal mental illness are” now “springing up, and some mothers are blogging about their experiences with remarkable candor.” Meanwhile, “a dozen states have passed laws encouraging screening, education and treatment.”

Related Links:

— “After Baby, an Unraveling: A Case Study in Maternal Mental Illness,” Pam Belluck, New York Times, June 16, 2014.

The Burlington (VT) Free Press (6/12, Hemingway) reports that over the “past 15 months, Vermont has been on a mission to quell a growing heroin addiction problem in the state.” Efforts to do so have “involved busting up drug rings importing heroin to the state, vastly expanding opiate addiction treatment programs with collaboration of treatment hubs and local doctors and arming cops and ambulance workers with a drug that can reverse the effects of an opiate overdose.” Back in January, Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-VT) “devoted his entire State of the State message to the Legislature to the heroin problem and what to do about it.”

Related Links:

— “In Vermont, on the front lines of war on heroin,” Sam Hemingway, Burlington Free Press via USA Today, June 12, 2014.

USA Today (6/12, Smith, DeMio) reports on the growth of heroin addiction, saying that “there are medicine-based treatments available today that can give addicts a fighting chance.” The story cites Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, saying that “the stigma attached to drug addiction has dragged down development and investment in better treatment options.”

The story mentions methadone and buprenorphine as possible means of controlling heroin cravings, and naltrexone. It also says that researchers are trying to develop “vaccines.” Volkow is quoted saying, “Multiple targets look promising, but we cannot move them (forward) because research on medication development is terribly expensive,” adding, “the pharmaceutical companies have been resistant to get into the space.”

Related Links:

— “Heroin addicts left trapped; families, heartbroken,” Carrie Blackmore Smith and Terry DeMio, Cincinnati Inquirer via USA Today, June 12, 2014.

In a piece for the New York Times (6/13, Subscription Publication), Parker Marie Molloy, a freelance journalist and activist, praises HHS for overturning the “decades-old ban on Medicare coverage for gender-confirming surgeries,” but warns that state-level restrictions remain. These, she says, leave “many, many” people without such coverage. Molloy concludes by urging readers to “stop fearing what we don’t understand, and push to end the anti-transgender stigma that empowers politicians and insurance companies to deny relatively inexpensive, lifesaving medical treatment.”

However, in a piece for the Wall Street Journal (6/13, Mchugh, Subscription Publication), Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, argues that simply providing surgery for transgendered individuals will not solve their underlying mental health issues.

Related Links:

— “Under the Skin: The Next Fight for Transgender Insurance Equality,” Parker Marie Malloy, New York Times, June 12, 2014.

MedPage Today (6/13, Brown) reports that according to a study published in the June 11 issue of JAMA Psychiatry, expectant mothers “who had symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder [MDD] were four times more likely to deliver preterm than women without symptoms.” While other studies have “shown that women who took antidepressants and benzodiazepine had higher risk of a preterm delivery…the risk associated with PTSD and a major depressive episode (OR 4.08, 95% CI 1.27-13.15) was separate from that risk,” the study of 2,654 women revealed.

Related Links:

— “Preterm Births Higher With PTSD, Depression,” Parker Brown, MedPage Today, June 12, 2014.