On its website, MSNBC (1/22, Khimm) examines how “the Obamacare wars” between Republicans and Democrats “hurt” individuals with mental illnesses. When states like Georgia, profiled in the piece, refuse to expand Medicaid under the law, safety net hospitals are “caught in the middle.” They don’t get new Medicaid funding, “yet they’ll see a cumulative $18 billion reduction in federal payments by 2020.” Moreover, the article explains, “as the fiscal pressures mount, mental health services for low-income residents are especially vulnerable to cutbacks.”

Related Links:

— “How the Obamacare wars hurt the mentally ill, “Suzy Khimm, MSNBC, January 24, 2014.

The AP (1/18) reported that the FDA “on Friday cleared a first-of-a-kind blood test that can help diagnose mental disabilities in babies by analyzing their genetic code.” It approved the CytoScan Dx Assay from Affymetrix that “is designed to help doctors diagnose children’s disabilities earlier” for better care, but “it is not intended for prenatal screening or for predicting other genetically acquired diseases and conditions.” The test “detects variations in patients’ chromosomes that are linked to Down syndrome, DiGeorge syndrome and other developmental disorders” and is described as “faster” and “more comprehensive” than existing tests.

The New York Times (1/20, Span) reports in its “New Old Age” blog on the results of a study by two researchers from Boston College that found “those who report having endured childhood maltreatment are particularly vulnerable to depression if they later care for their parents.” The study divided 1,001 participants into three groups: never abused, abused as children and caring for their non-abusive parent, and abused as children and caring for the abusive parent. The last group had significantly more deleterious effects.

Related Links:

— “A Risk in Caring for Abusive Parents, “Paula Span, The New York Times, January 20, 2014.

The Los Angeles Times (1/21, Healy) reports that research published in Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that individuals “who have ready access to a firearm are almost twice as likely to be killed and three times likelier to commit suicide than those without a gun available in the home or from a neighbor or friend.” Investigators analyzed data from 14 observational studies.

On its website, NBC News (1/21, Fox) reports that the data indicated that “the odds of suicide went up by anywhere from 1.5 times to 10-fold if people had access to guns.” Meanwhile, “studies looking at homicide found that if people had access to guns, they were two to three times more likely to be killed themselves.”

Related Links:

— “Study takes new look at gun access and risk of homicide, suicide, “Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, January 20, 2014.

The Los Angeles Times (1/16, Zarembo) “Science Now” blog reports that according to astudy published online Jan. 15 in JAMA Psychiatry, “people who suffer traumatic brain injuries [TBI] face an elevated risk of death from suicide or accidents for years to come.” The study, which is “based on four decades of data on hundreds of thousand of patients in Sweden,” found that individuals “who survived the immediate aftermath of moderate and severe traumatic brain injuries were three times more likely than people without such injuries to die prematurely, defined by the researchers as before age 56.”

Related Links:

— “Survivors of traumatic brain injuries more likely to die young, “Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times, January 15, 2014.