The Atlantic (3/9, Walton) reports, “A new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) finds that 20 percent of Americans adults suffered from a mental illness last year.” In other words, “this translates to 45.9 million people. Almost 30 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 suffered from a mental health disorder.” What’s more, “among all adults, women were more likely to suffer than men (23 percent vs. almost 17 percent, respectively).”

Related Links:

— “45.9 Million Americans Suffered From Mental Illness Last Year,”Alice G. Walton, The Atlantic, March 8, 2012.

The Huffington Post (3/9, Wood) reports that VA’s “free and confidential Veterans Crisis Line…is intended to bridge the gap between the vast number of veterans who need help, and the broad array of veterans services offered by the VA. In the four years of its existence, the Veterans Crisis Line operators, or ‘responders,’ as they are called, have initiated 18,600 ‘saves’ of veterans who vowed to kill themselves.” Because “thousands of war-weary men and women are expected to leave military service” in the years ahead “and face the stresses of civilian life, strained family relationships and a sagging economy,” VA “is adding more lines and call stations” to the Veterans Crisis Line.

Related Links:

— “Veterans Crisis Line Seeks To Help Those Struggling With Civilian Life, Unemployment, Post-Combat Stress,”David Wood, Huff Post World, March 8, 2012.

HealthDay (3/6, Dallas) reports, “Older people with heart disease who have undergone a cardiac catheterization may be at much greater risk for mental decline if they also show persistent signs of depression, according to” research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Investigators looked at data on “350 patients aged 60 or older who had a nonemergency catheterization and found those who had persistent symptoms of depression experienced significantly greater mental decline 30 months after their procedure.”

MedPage Today (3/6, Neale) reports, “Compared with patients with no depressive symptoms or symptoms at baseline only, those with symptoms that persisted at additional visits had greater declines in three cognitive domains and in global cognition within 30 months.” The investigators found that “the three cognitive domains were attention/executive function, learning and memory, and verbal fluency.”

Related Links:

— “Depression Could Worsen Mental Decline in Heart Patients,”Mary Elizabeth Dallas, Health Day, March 5, 2012.

CNN /Health.com (3/6, Gardner) reports, “Adopted children are twice as likely to abuse drugs if their biological parents did too, suggesting that genetics do indeed play a role in the development of substance abuse problems,” according to a study published online March 5 in the Archives of General Psychiatry. “However, trouble or substance abuse in the adoptive family is also a risk factor, according to a study of more than 18,000 adopted children in Sweden,” suggesting that “both environment and biological family history can influence a child’s likelihood of future drug use.”

Specifically, “adopted children whose biological parents abused drugs were twice as likely to do the same, but so were their adopted siblings with whom they shared no heredity,” MedPage Today (3/6, Fiore) reports. The study of “18,115 adopted children who were born from 1950 to 1993, along with 78,079 biological parents and siblings, and 51,208 adoptive parents and siblings,” found that “drug abuse is etiologically complex with important genetic and shared-environmental influences,” the study authors reported.

Related Links:

— “Adopted kids’ drug abuse risk affected by biological family,”Amanda Gardner , CNN, March 5, 2012.

HealthDay (3/6, Dotinga) reports that a study published March 5 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal “provides more evidence that too many young kids may be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or AD/HD, simply because they’re younger than their peers in the same classrooms.” Specifically, “researchers found that nearly seven percent of boys aged six to 12 were diagnosed with AD/HD overall, but the percentage ranged from 5.7 percent for those who were the oldest in their grade levels to 7.4 percent for the youngest. There was a similar gap for girls, although they’re much less likely to be diagnosed.”

For the study, investigators “followed more than 900,000 children living in British Columbia, Canada, where the cutoff for entry into kindergarten or first grade is Dec. 31 — meaning that children born in December would be close to a year younger than classmates born in January,” WebMD (3/6, Boyles) reports. “Compared to children whose birthdays were in January, boys born in December were about 30% more likely to be diagnosed with AD/HD,” while “girls born in December were 70% more likely to be diagnosed with AD/HD.”

MedPage Today (3/6, Neale) points out that “similar trends were seen for AD/HD medication prescriptions.” The study authors concluded, “Greater emphasis on a child’s behavior outside of school may be warranted when assessing children for AD/HD to lessen the risk of inappropriate diagnosis.” They added, “Further research into the determinants of AD/HD and approaches to its assessment and treatment should consider a child’s age within a grade.”

Related Links:

— “Youngest Kids in Class More Apt to Get ADHD ,” Randy Dotinga, Health Day, March 5, 2012.