On its front page, the Wall Street Journal (9/26, A1, Fields, Phillips, Subscription Publication) reports on the huge number of persons with mental illness incarcerated in jails and prisons, noting that the country’s largest jail systems, those of New York City, Los Angeles County, and Cook County, IL, are the de facto biggest treatment facilities for mental illness in the US. Deinstitutionalization in the 1970s, during which many state psychiatric hospitals were downsized or closed, coupled with the lack of mental healthcare in community settings, has led to this situation. Having large numbers of prisoners with serious mental health disorders poses a strain on Federal, state, and local lock-ups which lack facilities, budgets and mental healthcare professionals to provide proper treatment.

Related Links:

— “The New Asylums: Jails Swell With Mentally Ill, The Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2013.

HealthDay (9/26) reports, “Only some of the physical and mental health problems previously associated with preterm birth are actually caused by it,” according to a study published In JAMA Psychiatry. Investigators “analyzed the medical records of 3.3 million children born in Sweden between 1973 and 2008, and confirmed the strong link between preterm birth (generally classified as before 37 weeks’ gestation) and the risk of infant and young adult death, autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD).” But, the researchers “also concluded that many other problems that have been linked with preterm birth – such as severe mental illness, learning problems, suicide and poverty – may instead be more closely related to other factors that people share with other family members.”

Related Links:

— “Preemies’ Woes Sometimes Due to Heredity, Study Says, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, September 25, 2013.

HealthDay (9/26, Preidt) reports that a brain scan study published Sept. 24 in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience reveals why “psychopaths feel a lack of empathy when other people are in pain.” For the study, investigators “used functional MRI to observe brain activity in 121 inmates at a medium-security prison in the United States who were divided into three groups based on the levels of their psychopathy.” The inmates were shown pictures depicting physical pain and were then asked to imagine the pain happening to themselves and then to others. Scans revealed that inmates with a high level of psychopathy displayed little activity in brain regions associated with empathy for pain in others and above average activity for pain in themselves. What’s more, “when imagining other people in pain, highly psychopathic inmates showed increased activity in a brain area known to be involved in pleasure.”

Related Links:

— “Brain Scans Show Why Psychopaths Don’t Feel Your Pain, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, September 25, 2013.

USA Today (9/26, A1, Zoroya, Hoyer) reports on its front page that, according to data released by the Pentagon in response to queries from USA Today, “post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and other mental illnesses accounted for more days spent by troops in the hospital than any other medical condition in the military in 2012, including war wounds, injuries and illness.” Army Lt. Col. Catherine Wilkinson, a spokesperson for Pentagon health affairs, attributed the rise in hospitalizations for mental health reasons to the “exposure of servicemembers to stressful events” tied to deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, according to Lt. Col. Christopher Ivany, Army chief of behavioral health, “days spent in mental health wards are projected to decline 15% in the Army” in 2013, partly because of better treatment through outpatient care.

Related Links:

— “Troops Flooding Into Hospitals For Mental Health Care, “Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, September 25, 2013.

The Wall Street Journal (9/25, A4, Beck, Subscription Publication) reports on a movement integrating mental healthcare into primary care practices. This movement is occurring as the US healthcare professionals anticipate seeing many more patients under the Affordable Care Act and its resulting mental health parity. At the same time, providing patients with psychiatric care in the primary care setting would be one way of addressing a US-wide shortage of psychiatrists. Finally, many physical and psychiatric conditions are linked, such as depression and anxiety in patients with heart disease or diabetes, and it makes sense to treat both conditions together. According to the Journal, the American Psychiatric Association has endorsed the integrated care concept.

Related Links:

— “Getting Mental-Health Care at the Doctor’s Office, “Melinda Beck, The Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2013.