The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (3/6, Mauriello) points out that witnesses at the forum “complained of long wait times for mental health services, social stigmas, lack of school counselors and the need for more mental health training for primary care physicians who often first see psychiatrically ill patients.

CQ (3/6, Subscription Publication) reports, parents can face significant barriers trying to get help for their adult children with mental illness. Sometimes commitment laws and HIPPA privacy restrictions make things more difficult for family trying to get treatment for their relatives with psychiatric illness.

The NBC News (3/5) “Vitals” blog reported that three parents who testified at the forum complained that doctors’ interpretations of HIPAA privacy laws prevented them from helping their children. Doctors, they said, feared sharing information with the parents for fear of violating privacy rules. And, they complained, too often they had no one to call but police when their children became violent.”

Related Links:

— “Congress addresses mental illness in wake of rampage, “Tracie Mauriello, Post-Gazette Washington Bureau, March 6, 2013.

Politico (3/4, Cunningham) reported, “No one keeps tabs on precisely how many of the 552,000 mental health professionals in the US – according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics – won’t accept private health insurance.” However, “patient advocacy groups and provider organizations say many don’t want to accept low pay rates – and the insurance paperwork.” According to a survey conducted in 2005 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, “of 5.7 million adults who didn’t get mental health care when they needed it, nearly half blamed cost or insurance issues.”

Related Links:

— “Loophole for mental health care, “Paige Winfield Cunningham, Politico, March 4, 2013.

HealthDay (3/5, Marcus) reports, “A new study that looked at speech delays in children with autism spectrum disorders [ASDs] found that 70 percent of children who were not stringing words together into even the simplest of phrases by age four went on to do so by age eight, and in some cases, even achieved fluent speech.” The study involving 500 youngsters with ASDs was published online March 4 in the journal Pediatrics. Notably, “strong predictors of a child’s ability to go on to develop phrase or fluent speech skills included his or her non-verbal IQ and being less impaired socially,” the study found.

Related Links:

— “Most Kids With Autism Overcome Language Delays, Study Finds, “Mary Brophy Marcus, HealthDay, March 4, 2013.

HealthDay (3/5, Salamon) reports, “Anxiety is far more common in the days after childbirth than depression, with nearly one in five new mothers reporting acute mental stress surrounding delivery and the transition to a larger family,” according to a study published online March 4 in the journal Pediatrics.

MedPage Today (3/5) reports that data from 1,123 new mothers revealed that “during the initial maternity hospital stay, 17.1% of women who were breastfeeding screened positive for acute postpartum state anxiety, while 5.5% screened positive for depression (P<0.0001)." New mothers "with anxiety had greater personal healthcare use in the first two postpartum weeks and breastfed for a shorter amount of time, the researchers reported." The Department of Health and Human Services, among others, helped support the study. Related Links:

— “Anxiety May Be More Common Than Depression After Pregnancy, “Maureen Salamon, HealthDay, March 4, 2013.

The Houston Chronicle (2/22, Ortega) reported, “A survey of more than 500 Latino and European American students from the sixth through eighth grades found kids who reported their parents talk about past drug use were less likely to have strong anti-drug use attitudes.” The study, published in the journal of Human Communication Research, “builds on past research that found teens said they’d be less likely to use drugs if their parents talked to them about their personal drug use.” Instead, the opposite effect was found. Instead of discussing past substance use, “researchers suggest parents focus on the negative consequences of abusing drugs and alcohol, how to avoid using, the family rules against substance use and stories about others who have gotten in trouble by using substances.”

HealthDay (2/25, Preidt) reported, “The researchers asked 253 Hispanic and 308 white children in grades six to eight about conversations they had with their parents about alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana,” and the research showed “that children whose parents talked to them about the negative effects of or regret over their use of alcohol, cigarettes or marijuana were less likely to oppose the use of these substances.” Jennifer Kam, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and one of the co-authors, said, “Parents may want to reconsider whether they should talk to their kids about times when they used substances in the past and not volunteer such information.”

The NPR (2/21, Zielinski) “Shots” blog reported that Kam said, “When it comes to addressing their past, parents shouldn’t lie. But use of drugs isn’t something they should volunteer either. … I would encourage parents to clearly tell their kids they don’t approve of using [and that] there are consequences.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Parents talking about their own drug use could be bad for kids,”Francisca Ortega, Houston Chronicle, February 22, 2013.