CQ (1/25, Attias, Subscription Publication) reports members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday held what they said was their first meeting on mental healthcare since 2007. There, lawmakers referenced the Newtown school shooting and also addressed questions about mental healthcare overall and their own priorities. For example, Chairman Tom Harkin “said ‘the critical investments’ need to be made to provide access to treatment for those with mental illness so they can lead healthy lives.” On this topic, Thomas Insel of the National Institute of Mental Health said sequestration cuts “would prevent certain studies from being carried out, which could include scaling up a project focused on the predictors for early psychosis.” While Democrats pushed for the release of a mental health parity rule, which SAMHSA director Pamela S. Hyde said was in the works, Insel noted that those “who receive treatment are 15 times less likely to commit a severely violent act than those who are not treated.”

CQ (1/24, Attias, Subscription Publication) says leaders in both houses of Congress, spurred by the Newtown school shooting, “appear focused on reviewing the current [mental health] system while speaking in broad terms about what issues should be discussed.” For example, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee “is holding a hearing Thursday – its first of the new Congress – focused on mental health, and a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is also expected to hear testimony on the topic.” Also, Julio C. Abreu at Mental Health America said US Sen. Al Franken will introduce legislation to increase access to mental healthcare in schools. The group also seeks a bill “to enhance community mental health centers by setting eligibility criteria and extending coverage under Medicaid.”

USA Today (1/24, Kennedy) reports that a new study released Wednesday by the Federal Institute of Medicine found that veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars may be suffering from chronic multisymptom illness, formerly known as Gulf War illness. Paul Rieckhoff, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said this “may be the first time that the symptoms suffered by veterans of the 1991 Gulf War have been linked to veterans of the current wars, which started in 2001 and 2003.” The researchers “investigated treatments for Gulf War illness, including any existing research, to see what worked for veterans.” They found that veterans who suffer from chronic multisymptom illness have “symptoms in at least two of six categories: fatigue, mood and cognition issues, musculoskeletal problems, gastrointestinal problems, respiratory difficulties and neurologic issues that last for at least six months.”

Related Links:

— “Report: New vets showing Gulf War illness symptoms, “Kelly Kennedy, USA Today, January 23, 2013.

The Washington Post (1/23, Khazan) reports on an “increasingly common” problem for psychiatric patients nationwide, where mental health patients are “boarded” in hospital emergency departments “in part because of cutbacks in inpatient hospital beds.” The Post explains, “As states trimmed their budgets in the economic downturn, resources for mental health patients were among the casualties.” The piece notes, “For many patients suffering from psychiatric crises, this translates to longer waits in emergency departments, where they receive no treatment for days – and sometimes weeks – while social workers try to chase down open spots in psychiatric wards, doctors said.”

Related Links:

— “Psychiatric patients wait in ERs for days and weeks as inpatient beds are scaled back, “Olga Khazan, The Washington Post, January 22, 2013.

HealthDay (1/23, Preidt) reports that “U.S. military personnel who were the victims of sexual or physical assault as adults are at increased risk for suicidal thoughts or actions, according to a new study” published Jan. 18 in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. Meanwhile, college students “were more likely to think about or commit suicide if they were sexually assaulted as children or adults.” Investigators came to these conclusions after having “273 active-duty U.S. Air Force personnel with an average age of about 26 and 309 undergraduate college students with an average age of about 20 complete surveys anonymously.”

Related Links:

— “Physical, Sexual Assault May Raise Soldiers’ Suicide Risk, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, January 22, 2013.