The New York Times (10/8, Dao, Subscription Publication) reports that “nearly half of all suicides in the military having been committed with privately owned firearms.” In response, the Pentagon is “developing a suicide prevention campaign that will encourage friends and families of potentially suicidal service members to safely store or voluntarily remove personal firearms from their homes.” In addition, “Congress appears poised to enact legislation that would allow military mental health counselors and commanders to talk to troops about their private firearms” and would amend a 2011 law that prohibited DOD from collected on legally owned firearms. Sen. Inhofe “who sponsored the original 2011 restrictions, said he would support the new amendment ‘if it clears up any confusion.'”

Related Links:

— “As Military Suicides Rise, Focus Is on Private Weapons,”James Dao, The New York Times, October 7, 2012.

There was a fair amount of coverage of a new report (10/3) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that teen drunk driving has declined. Much of the coverage has focused on the reasons behind the trend.

Bloomberg News (10/3, Lopatto) says that the CDC report found that “drunk driving among US teens fell 54 percent in the past two decades, a trend helped by laws to curb underage alcohol consumption and higher gas prices keeping high school students off the road.” Citing the report in the Atlanta-based CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the article details that “in 2011, 10 percent of high school students reported drinking and driving, compared with 22 percent in 1991.” According to Bloomberg News, “people ages 16 to 20 are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when their blood alcohol is .08 percent, the legal limit in many states,” the report found.

Reuters (10/3, Beasley) quotes CDC Director Thomas Frieden, who told reporters, “We’ve seen really good progress.” He added, “We’re moving in the right direction, but we need to keep up the momentum.” However, the article also notes that the CDC report also showed that last year, almost 1 million high school students consumed alcohol before getting into the driver’s seat.

In its “Booster Shots” blog, the Los Angeles Times (10/3, Brown) details that “the CDC analysis was compiled from data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey.” The blog describes that the “American public and private school students in grades 9 through 12 volunteered to answer an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire that asked about their alcohol use (including binge drinking, defined as having had five or more drinks in a row on at least one day in the preceding 30 days) as well as whether they drink and drive.” The article adds, “boys were more likely to drink and drive than girls, and white and Latino students were more likely to drink and drive than black students.”

Related Links:

— “Teen Drunk Driving Falls on High Gas Prices, Less Alcohol, “Elizabeth Lopatto, Bloomberg, October 3, 2012.

Medscape (10/3, Johnson) reports, “The treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) should go beyond the goal of symptom relief to include a more global target of improving patients’ overall and occupational functioning,” a shift that “is reflected in new consensus recommendations currently being finalized by the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT).” Network executive chairman Raymond Lam, MD, of the University of British Columbia, told delegates at the Canadian Psychiatric Association’s 62nd Annual Conference, “The ideal outcome really should be functional recovery.”

Medscape (10/2, Johnson) reports, “Parents who lose a child to suicide have more mental and physical health problems in the two years preceding their child’s death, compared with those whose children do not die by suicide,” according to a study presented at the Canadian Psychiatric Association 62nd Annual Conference. After comparing “outcomes in suicide-bereaved parents (n = 1415), parents whose children had died in motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) (n = 1132), and nonbereaved parents (n = 1415),” investigators found that “suicide-bereaved parents were more likely than MVA-bereaved parents to have had adverse health and social markers prior to their child’s death — including depression (ARR, 1.30), cardiovascular disease (ARR, 1.54), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (ARR, 1.68), other physical disorders (ARR, 1.32), and low income (ARR, 1.33).”

In continuing coverage, a story for the “Uncounted Casualties” series by the Austin (TX) American-Statesman (10/2) reports, “Although US military forces have left Iraq and are winding down in Afghanistan, the buildup in mental health services for soldiers who served there continues to surge.” For example, Veterans Affairs has been adding mental health workers. But a recent review by VA’s “Office of Inspector General found that 12 percent, or 1.2 million appointments, had wait times of up to 60 days.” The Statesman adds, “Still, the VA…fully intends to become the national leader in providing specialized psychotherapy on a massive scale to treat PTSD, said Bradley Karlin, the VA’s national mental health director for psychotherapy and psychogeriatrics.” Karlin’s agency recently announced that $100 million will be spent to study treatments for both PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.

Related Links:

— “Treating injuries that cannot be seen, “American-Statesman Investigative Team, Statesman.com, October 1, 2012.