Modern Healthcare (11/3, McKinney, Subscription Publication) reported, “Use of an Internet-based mental health management program may improve symptoms among patients with depression, according to a study in the journal Psychiatric Services.” For the study, “researchers used eCare for Moods, a 12-month-long management program that allows patients to submit data about their medication adherence, side effects, mood, daily functioning and other aspects of their care and access informational content using a Web-based interface.” Notably, “after two years, 43% of the participants in the eCare program were depression-free, compared with 30% of the patients who received the usual regimen of mental healthcare.” In an emailed new release, the American Psychiatric Association announced, “Completion of more education modules was positively associated with less severe depression.”

Related Links:

— “Online mental health management program shows benefits, “Maureen McKinney, Modern Healthcare, November 2, 2012.

Reuters (11/2, Grens) reported that only about 4.5 percent of patients with chronic pain, who are prescribed opioid-based prescription medications, become addicted to the medication, according to a study published in the Oct. 18 issue of the journal Addiction. Researchers from the Cochrane Collaboration came to this conclusion after conducting a meta-analysis of 17 studies comprising more than 88,000 patients who were treated for non-cancer related chronic pain. Ten of the 17 studies provided the length of the treatment protocols, one of which was only a matter of days whereas the remaining nine ranged from three months to several years. Reuters pointed out that some experts questioned the whether the results are useful, considering the wide range of sources and treatment regimens.

Related Links:

— “Painkillers not as addictive as feared: study, “Kerry Grens,Reuters, November 2, 2012.

In the New York Times (11/3) “Well” blog, Pauline W. Chen, MD, “For almost three decades now, health care experts have been studying the psychological effects of natural disasters and have found that disasters…left significant, disabling and lasting psychological scars in their wake.” Chen added, “Most commonly and most immediately, the survivors suffered post-traumatic stress symptoms like recurrent nightmares, flashbacks, a hair-trigger temper and an emotional ‘numbing,’ much of which could be considered normal in the first couple of months after a disaster.” If symptoms did not abate, “or when other mood disorders like anxiety and depression appeared, mental health issues quickly became a leading cause of disability for survivors, further hampering other efforts at recovery.”

Related Links:

— “Easing the Trauma After the Storm, “Pauline W. Chen, The New York Times, November 2, 2012.

The Pittsburgh Business Times (11/2, Mamula, Subscription Publication) reported that new research from the University of Pittsburgh and the VA Pittsburgh Medical Center shows that “more than one in four older veterans in nursing homes were taking antipsychotic medications,” while 40 percent of those on the medications had no related diagnosis. That finding, lead author Walid Gellad said, shows that “VA is not immune” to the trend of overuse of such medications in nursing home settings. Gellad and colleagues “collected data on all veterans age 65 and older who were admitted for 90 or more days to one of the 133 VA Community Living Centers between January 2004 and June 2005.” The data suggested “veterans in dementia units had 66 percent greater odds of receiving an antipsychotic and residents with aggressive behavior had nearly three times greater odds of receiving an antipsychotic.”

Related Links:

— “Inappropriate drug use found at VA, “Kris B. Mamula, The Pittsburgh Business Times, November 2, 2012.

The New York Times (11/5, A15, Carey, Subscription Publication) reports, “The rate of suicide in the United States rose sharply during the first few years since the start of the recession,” according to a report published online Nov. 5 in The Lancet. After examining data on suicide and death rates collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “researchers found that the rate between 2008 and 2010 increased four times faster than it did in the eight years before the recession. … Without the increase in the rate, the total deaths from suicide each year in the United States would have been lower by about 1,500, the study” found.

“From 1997 to 2007, the rate of increase in suicides was 0.12 per 100,000 people, but from 2008 to 2010 it jumped to 0.51 per 100,000 people,” HealthDay (11/5, Reinberg) reports. The study authors “estimated that about 25 percent of these additional suicides can be blamed on rising unemployment.”

Related Links:

— “Increase Seen in U.S. Suicide Rate Since Recession, “Benedict Carey, New York Times, Nevember 4, 2012.