The Los Angeles Times (6/10, Kaplan) reports that according to the results of a Gallup poll (6/10) released June 9, “the longer a person has been out of work, the greater the chances that he or she will develop a clinical case of depression.” The poll revealed that “overall, unemployed Americans were nearly twice as likely as working Americans to be depressed – 12.4% versus 6.4%.” The poll data “are based on interviews with 356,599 Americans who were surveyed in 2013 for the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.”

The Washington Times (6/10, Klimas) reports that approximately one in every five individuals “who have been unemployed for 52 weeks or more report that they are either depressed or being treated for depression,” a figure nearly double that of those “who have been unemployed for just three to five weeks.” The poll also indicated that long-term unemployment “could lead to a higher rate of health problems like depression or anxiety.”

The Kansas City (MO) Star (6/10, Stafford) reports, “The long-term unemployed also may have financial worries that keep them from seeking professional help or filling prescriptions for medication that could help them.”

The National Journal (6/10, Berman, Subscription Publication) points out that “a 2003 study in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found that depression costs the US economy tens of billions of dollars annually, in part because of ‘direct treatment costs, lost earnings due to depression-related suicides, and indirect workplace costs.’” Also covering the story are the Huffington Post (6/9, Chan) and Forbes(6/9, Adams).

Related Links:

— “Risk of depression is nearly twice as high for unemployed Americans,” Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2014.

In “The Blog” for the Huffington Post (6/7), psychologist Nicholas Covino, president of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, wrote in wake of the Santa Barbara rampage, “Despite what is sensationalized in the media, the majority of violent episodes in this country are not triggered by mental illness.” In fact, “a recent study by the American Psychiatric Association found no predictable patterns linking criminal conduct and mental illness symptoms; of the 429 crimes studied, 7.5 percent were directly related to symptoms of mental illness.” People with mental illnesses “are more likely to commit suicide with a gun than homicide.”

Related Links:

— “Lessons from Santa Barbara: Why We Need a Long-Term Approach to Ending Violence,” Nicholas Covino, The Huffington Post, June 6, 2014.

The AP (6/7) reports that DOJ released a report Friday that found Los Angeles County jails “have ‘deplorable’ conditions that have contributed to a dramatic increase in suicides” and found “there is inadequate mental health care and supervision to identify suicidal inmates or prevent them from becoming suicidal.” The report found 15 inmates killed themselves in two and a half years and cited “‘dimly lit, vermin-infested, noisy, unsanitary, cramped and crowded’ conditions” in the jails. The DOJ report said the Sheriff’s Department had completed some reforms required by a 2002 agreement, but said “‘serious systemic deficiencies’ remain.”

The Los Angeles Times (6/7, Chang) reports that DOJ said Friday it wants “court oversight of how the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department treats those inmates,” which “marks a significant escalation by the federal government in its efforts to improve conditions in the nation’s largest jail system.” The Times says the county disputes DOJ’s findings “and defended its treatment of mentally ill inmates.”

The Wall Street Journal (6/7, Phillips, Subscription Publication) reports that Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels, head of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement, “The Los Angeles County Jails have an obligation to provide conditions of confinement that do not offend the Constitution and to take reasonable measures to protect inmates from harm.”

Related Links:

— “Report: Mental health care at LA jails lacking,” Associated Press, Sacramento Bee, June 6, 2014.

On its front page Saturday, the New York Times (6/7, A1, Schwirtz, Santora, Belluck, Subscription Publication) examined the system for post-incarceration mental healthcare against the backdrop of a New York man accused of stabbing a young boy to death and leaving another young child critically wounded. The Times says that even though “the numbers of inmates with mental illness have surged in jails and prisons across the country in recent years,” their mental healthcare and fitness for society “can be haphazard” afterward. New York state “has more tools” than most, yet “there are many ways for mentally unstable people who might be dangerous to slip through the cracks.”

Related Links:

— “Stabbing Case Shows Lapses in Treatment for the Mentally Ill,” Michael Schwirtz, New York Times, June 6, 2014.

MedPage Today (6/6, Neale) reports that research published online in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that “the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) before a stroke may worsen the event for some patients.” Researchers found that “among patients with hemorrhagic strokes, use of an SSRI in the 90 days before symptom onset was associated with a greater likelihood of the stroke being severe (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.08-1.84) and of dying within 30 days (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.17-2.18).” But, in “those with ischemic strokes…SSRI use was not associated with either outcome.”

Related Links:

— “Stroke Rounds: SSRIs May Worsen Hemorrhagic Strokes,” Todd Neale, MedPage Today, June 5, 2014.