Reuters (6/2, Kelland) reported that according to a study published June 1 in the Archives of General Psychiatry, babies born before 32 weeks’ gestation may be more likely to develop severe psychiatric issues, including depression, bipolar disorder or psychosis. For infants born between 32 and 36 weeks, there was a lesser yet noticeably increased risk for psychiatric problems.

Specifically, “compared to babies born at full term, which is 37 to 42 weeks of gestation, babies who were born at less than 32 weeks were seven times more likely to be hospitalized with bipolar disorder as adults,” the CNN (6/2, Wade) “The Chart” blog reported. “They were three times more likely to be hospitalized for depression and more than twice as likely for psychosis,” investigators found. To arrive at this conclusion, “scientists analyzed data from the medical records of more than 1.3 million people born in Sweden, focusing on people older than age 16 who were admitted to a hospital for a psychiatric disorder.” They then cross-checked the data to see which individuals had been born prematurely.

MedPage Today (6/2, Neale) reported, “The researchers noted that the relationship between preterm birth and impaired neurodevelopment is biologically plausible. ‘Functional magnetic resonance studies in young adults who were born very preterm have documented neuroanatomical alterations in brain networks that have also been found to be disrupted in psychiatric populations, including frontostriatal, frontoparietal, occipital, temporal, and fronto-parieto-cerebellar,’ they wrote.” Also covering the story were BBC News (6/1, Gallagher) and the UK’s Telegraph (6/3, Donnelly).

While this isn’t necessarily psychiatry, I think it deserves notice.

Related Links:

— “Premature babies have higher psychiatric risk,”Kate Kelland , Reuters, June 01, 2012.

NPR /Colorado Public Radio (6/1, Whitney) reports, “A study published this month in the Annals of Emergency Medicine by Anthony Weiss with Partners Healthcare in Massachusetts found psychiatric patients in hospital emergency departments waited an average of 11.5 hours before being treated or released.” Weiss said, “The reimbursement for mental health care” in the US “is among the lowest across the different disease states,” which means “it’s not, in some cases, economically viable to support” psychiatric wards. This, in turn, can lead to lead to patients with psychiatric issues spending long amounts of time in emergency departments.

Related Links:

— “As Psychiatric Wards Close, Patients Languish In Emergency Rooms,”Eric Whitney, NPR Colorado Public Radio, May 31, 2012.

Reuters (6/1, Kelland) reports on mental illness and suicide in crisis-stricken countries such as Greece, and the lasting impact it can have even after the crisis is over. The piece quotes sociologist David Stuckler, of Cambridge University, who said, “Austerity can turn a crisis into an epidemic. Job loss can lead to an accumulation of risks that can tip people into depression and severe mental illness which can be difficult to reverse – especially if people are not getting appropriate care. Untreated mental illness, just like other forms of illness, can escalate and develop into a problem that is much more difficult to treat later on.”

Related Links:

— “Analysis: Greeks count mental health cost of a country in crisis,”Kate Kelland, Reuters, May 31, 2012.

HealthDay (5/30, Preidt) reports, “Adult survivors of childhood cancer can suffer emotional problems and reduced quality of life because of the long-term physical effects of their cancer treatment,” according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Investigators looked at “data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study to assess the effects of scarring, disfigurement and persistent hair loss experienced by more than 14,000 adult survivors of childhood cancer.” The researchers found that “survivors with persistent hair loss had an increased risk of anxiety; female survivors with persistent hair loss had an increased risk of depressive symptoms; and survivors with a head or neck, arm or leg disfigurement had an increased risk of depression.”

Related Links:

— “Emotional Woes May Last for Childhood Cancer Survivors,”Robert Preidt, HealthDay, May 30, 2012.

USA Today (5/30, Healy) reports on screening tool Whats MyM3, which “can tell if you’re at increased risk for depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).” Psychiatrist Steven Daviss, MD, of M3 Information, said that “WhatsMyM3 (originally My Mood Monitor) can help adults, whether in treatment or not, ‘monitor their own symptoms and have a view of what’s going on’ in terms of mood and anxiety.” Psychiatrist Robert Post, MD, former chief of biological psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and one of the WhatsMyM3 developers, added that “many of those in need of treatment are seen in a primary care setting; yet their emotional health ‘never really comes up for discussion’ and goes untreated.”

Related Links:

— “Screening for mental illness? Yes, there’s an app for that,”Michelle Healy, USA Today, May 30, 2012.