In continuing coverage, NBC Nightly News (12/17, story 5, 1:25, Williams) reported, “This tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut has already ignited a national conversation about guns, as we have just seen.” However, mental illness has been a “component…in all the serious gun crimes we have covered. One in 17 Americans lives with a serious mental illness, that’s according to the government, and their symptoms range in severity, of course. But fewer than a third of them receive treatment.” Chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman, MD, explained, “Less than 10% of our healthcare dollars are spent on mental healthcare.” While well-to-do people can pay for care and the poor may get some care through Medicaid, other people fall through the cracks.

American Medical News (12/17, Krupa) reports, “Physicians with mental illness are at a higher risk of committing suicide than nonphysicians,” according to a study published online Nov. 5 in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry. After evaluating “data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Violent Death Reporting System on 31,636 adult suicide victims in 17 states,” researchers found that “the 203 physicians in the study were more likely than nonphysicians to have a known mental health disorder or to have experienced recent job-related stress.” The piece goes on to note that physicians may be reluctant to seek help for a number of reasons, including the fact that they may be required by their state medical boards to self-report any psychiatric treatment.

Related Links:

— “Doctors shun the help that could cut suicide risk, “Carolyne Krupa, American Medical News, December 17, 2012.

In “The Mind” column for the New York Times (12/18, D5, Subscription Publication), psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman, MD, writes, “In the wake of the terrible shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., national attention has turned again to the complex links between violence, mental illness and gun control.” Dr. Friedman asserts, “All the focus on the small number of people with mental illness who are violent serves to make us feel safer by displacing and limiting the threat of violence to a small, well-defined group.” However, “the sad and frightening truth is that the vast majority of homicides are carried out by outwardly normal people in the grip of all too ordinary human aggression to whom we provide nearly unfettered access to deadly force.”

Related Links:

— “In Gun Debate, a Misguided Focus on Mental Illness, “Richard Friedman, The New York Times, December 17, 2012.

The ABC News (12/16, Moisse) “Medical Unit” blog reported, “If you’ve ever felt bullied at work, you’re not alone. A study” published online Dec. 12 in BMJ open “suggests workplace bullying is common, and so is the need for medical intervention.”

MedPage Today (12/15, Neale) reported, “Middle-age, municipal employees who said they were bullied were significantly more likely to be prescribed and reimbursed for at least one psychotropic medication in the next five years (HR 1.51 for women and 2.15 for men).” The study of “6,287 workers (80% female) between the ages of 40 and 60 [who] were not using psychotropic medications at baseline” also revealed that “frequently observing a fellow worker being bullied was similarly associated with subsequent psychotropic medication use for both women (HR 1.53) and men (HR 1.92), the researchers reported.”

Related Links:

— “Workplace Bullying Tied to Psychiatric Tx, “Todd Neale, MedPage Today, December 14, 2012.

USA Today (12/17, Szabo) reports, “Families and doctors who treat the mentally ill say they hope that Friday’s tragedy in Newtown, Conn., will refocus the nation’s attention on improving mental health services.” While “police have not yet released details about the motives or mental state of shooter Adam Lanza,” the “perpetrators of similar mass murders — at Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University and a Tucson gathering for Rep. Gabby Giffords, for example — all suffered from serious mental health conditions.” Forensic psychologist Dew Cornell, who directs the Virginia Youth Violence Project, pointed out that “schools and communities ‘have cut their mental health services to the bone.'” He added, “We’re paying a price for it as a society.”

The Arizona Republic (12/16, Sexton) reported that “mental health experts in Arizona said discussion of Lanza’s mental state is an opportunity to talk about the need for better mental health preventive services.” Jim Frost, president of National Alliance on Mental Illness for Arizona, said that “it is no surprise that mass shootings in the past two years involved young adult men.” He explained, “There is a life trigger at age 18 for some people who have trouble coping, he said. For some men, it becomes an act of aggression, an act of violence.”

Better Mental Healthcare Alone May Not Prevent Mass Killings. The Buffalo (NY) News (12/15, Zremski) pointed out that “better mental health services alone are not the [preventive] medicine for mass shootings like the one that claimed the lives of 20 school children and eight adults, including the killer, in Connecticut on Friday.” According to psychiatrists, “it’s nearly impossible to identify who among the mentally ill is truly dangerous, and that any effort to do so will only further stigmatize a category of illness where many people already shun treatment out of embarrassment and fear.” Finally, “the vast majority of mentally ill people are not prone to violence.”

Article Provides Tips On How To Discuss Newtown Shootings With Kids. HealthDay (12/15, Gardner) provided tips for parents on how to discuss the Newtown shootings with their children. Experts say youngsters “need to be able to express their feelings about what happened.” Parents “should try to inform children without overwhelming them.” Grown-ups “can also offer ‘gentle words, a hug when appropriate or sometimes just being present with [kids] and not leaving them alone,’ said” Victor Fornari, MD, “director of child/adolescent psychiatry at North Shore-LIJ Health System in New Hyde Park, NY.”

Related Links:

— “Newtown tragedy could put mental health in spotlight, “Liz Szabo, USA Today, December 17, 2012.