The Columbus (OH) Dispatch (12/29, Rowland, Candisky) detailed efforts to improve the US mental healthcare system in the past year since the Newtown, CT school shootings. In a webcast, American Psychiatric Association president Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, of Columbia University, said that the combination of the Mental Health Parity Act and the Affordable Care Act “will have tremendous impact of historic significance.” The article also examined measures passed in Ohio to improve mental healthcare, including “Gov. John Kasich’s initiative to expand Medicaid, which will provide health coverage to tens of thousands of adults in need of treatment for mental illness and substance abuse, and provide additional state aid for community-based services.”

Related Links:

— “‘Broken’ mental-health system made a few improvements this year, “Darrel Rowland, The Columbus Dispatch, December 29, 2013.

In an opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun (12/29), psychiatrist John J. Boronow, MD, of the Sheppard Pratt Health System, and psychiatrist Steven S. Sharfstein, MD, president and CEO of the Sheppard Pratt Health System, called for passage in Maryland of an “‘assisted outpatient treatment’ (AOT) law, also called Outpatient Civil Commitment.” According to the two psychiatrists, “many AOT programs in other states have been the subject of studies – most exhaustively in North Carolina and New York – and have been shown to reduce hospitalization, homelessness, incarceration and, not the least, the costs of care for individuals with major mental illness.”

Related Links:

— “Close the mental health revolving door [Commentary], “John J. Boronow, The Baltimore Sun, December 29, 2013.

In continuing coverage, Reuters (12/28, Huggins) reported that research published online in Stroke suggests that greater levels of anxiety may be associated with a higher risk of stroke.

On its website, TIME (12/28, Nicks) reported that investigators looked at data on more than 6,000 “men and women over about 16 years.” The researchers found that “anxiety is responsible for a relatively small uptick, 14 percent, in the risk of suffering a stroke.”

The Huffington Post (12/28) reported that although the research “does not show that anxiety causes stroke,” study author Maya Lambiase, PhD, “noted that people with greater anxiety levels might be more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors such as sedentary activity or smoking, which are known stroke risk factors.” Meanwhile, “other potential factors could include higher blood pressure or stress hormone levels.”

Related Links:

— “Anxiety linked to stroke risk, “C.E. Huggins, Reuters, December 27, 2013.

On its front page, the New York Times (12/26, A1, Creswell, Subscription Publication) reported that an experiment in Raleigh, NC, in which paramedics take people with severe mental illnesses directly to a psychiatric facility and not to the emergency department (ED) “is being closely watched by other cities desperate to find a way to help” those with mental illnesses get the help they need without overcrowding EDs. Across the US in the year 2010, more than 6.4 million ED visits, “or about five percent of total visits, involved patients whose primary diagnosis was a mental health condition or substance abuse.” What’s more, “spending by general hospitals to care for these patients is expected to nearly double to $38.5 billion in 2014, from $20.3 billion in 2003,” according to one estimate by the Federal government.

Related Links:

— “E.R. Costs for Mentally Ill Soar, and Hospitals Seek Better Way, “Julie Creswell, The New York Times, December 25, 2013.

On its “All Things Considered” program and in its “Shots” blog, NPR (12/24, Hamilton) reported on “growing evidence that pot can affect brain circuits involved in” post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to Andrew Holmes, a researcher at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, experiments using animals indicate that “tetrahydrocannabinol [THC], the chemical that gives marijuana its feel-good qualities, acts on a system in the brain that is ‘critical for fear and anxiety modulation.’” However, Holmes “and other brain scientists caution that marijuana has serious drawbacks as a potential treatment for PTSD.” The effects of THC are not lasting, and marijuana has side effects including impairment of motor skills and short-term memory loss.

Related Links:

— “Could Pot Help Veterans With PTSD? Brain Scientists Say Maybe, “Jon Hamilton, NPR, December 24, 2013.