USA Today (3/24, Bakeman) reported, “Psychiatrists, county officials and law enforcement are questioning a portion of New York’s new gun-control law that requires them to take steps that could lead to guns being seized from potentially dangerous people.” Since earlier this month, “New York’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act has required mental health professionals to report when a patient is a potential danger to himself or others.” According to USA Today, “therapists’ chief concern is that patients feeling suicidal or homicidal might conceal their troubles to avoid having their guns removed.”

Related Links:

— “Mental-health officials clash on N.Y. gun law reporting, “Jessica Bakeman, USA Today, March 24, 2013.

In an opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun (3/17), Steven S. Sharfstein, MD, president and CEO of Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore, MD and a past president of the American Psychiatric Association, wrote, “In the intense debate on gun violence and mental illness, with a focus on the extremely rare event of mass murders such as in Newtown, Conn., or Aurora, Colo., what is lost in the conversation and debate is the serious suicide epidemic we experience in the United States every year due to gun violence.” Dr. Sharfstein pointed out, “Of 30,000 gun deaths in the US every year, nearly 20,000 are suicides.” Dr. Sharfstein concluded, “Barriers to purchasing a gun for those with a history of treatment for mental illness will likely have a positive impact on the suicide rate, but not much effect on the homicide rate.”

Related Links:

— “Mental illness and guns: the issue is suicide, “Steven S. Sharfstein, The Baltimore Sun, March 17, 2013.

The Los Angeles Times (3/20, Levey) reports that a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that three years after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, the law “remains largely a mystery to most Americans.” Nearly “six in 10 Americans say they still don’t have enough information to understand how the Affordable Care Act will affect them. Ignorance about the law is even higher among Americans who stand to benefit most, with more than two-thirds of people without health insurance reporting they don’t have enough information.”

Related Links:

— “Ignorance about health law remains high, “Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2013.

The New York Times (3/21, A17, Hoffman, Subscription Publication) reports, “The likelihood of a school-aged American child receiving a diagnosis of autism, Asperger syndrome or a related developmental disorder increased 72 percent in 2011-12 from 2007, according to an analysis of a phone survey of parents released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration.” The new “report emphasized that while the numbers changed from one in 86 children, ages six to 17, having received a diagnosis in a 2007 parent survey, to one in 50 children in the current report, most of the increase was because of previously undiagnosed cases.”

Related Links:

— “Parental Study Shows Rise in Autism Spectrum Cases, “Jan Hoffman, The New York Times, March 20, 2013.

The Boston Herald (3/21, McConville) reports, “Abused girls who go on to become mothers are three times more likely than their non-abused peers to have” a child with autism, according to a study published online March 20 in JAMA Psychiatry.

The CNN (3/21, Sloane) “The Chart” blog reports, “Investigators at the Harvard School of Public Health looked at more than 50,000 women in the Nurses’ Health Study II group, and found that those who reported the highest levels of abuse as children themselves were 60% more likely to have children with some type of autism-spectrum disorder.” However, “the reasons for the apparent connection…remain murky.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Abuse victims more likely to have autistic children, “Christine McConville, Boston Herald, March 20, 2013.