In continuing coverage, the Los Angeles Times (3/15, Gorman) reports that “California will receive funds to expand emergency psychiatric care, part of a national push to get mentally ill patients out of hospital emergency rooms and into psychiatric facilities, the federal government announced this week.” The Times quotes Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as saying that “treating psychiatric patients in ERs is not an ‘efficient use of healthcare dollars, and may be detrimental to vulnerable patients.'”

The Bangor Daily News (3/15, Cuda) reports that “the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced that 11 states — including Maine — and the District of Columbia will participate in the Medicaid Emergency Psychiatric Demonstration.” The Daily News quotes Tavenner as saying that “this new demonstration will help ensure patients receive appropriate, high quality care when they need it most and save states money.”

MedPage Today (3/15, Walker) reports that “the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a new demonstration project aimed at Medicaid beneficiaries who experience psychiatric emergencies.” The story adds that the new program is part of the Affordable Care Act and “will test whether Medicaid beneficiaries receive faster, more appropriate care when psychiatric institutions receive Medicaid reimbursement.”

Related Links:

— “California to get funds for emergency psychiatric care, “Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2012.

In continuing coverage, the Atlantic (3/10, Entin) reported, “A follow-up study to 2004 research, which had noted an increased risk of suicide among people taking certain antidepressants, particularly children and adolescents, has now reached a different conclusion. Contrary to earlier results, the new study,” published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, “found that when the antidepressant prescribed is a good fit for the individual, there’s a lower risk of suicide. The new study’s results were especially strong for adults and the elderly. Though there was no decrease in suicide risk among children and adolescents, there was also no increase.”

Related Links:

— “Can Antidepressants Actually Make Us More Likely to Commit Suicide? The Atlantic, March 9, 2012.

Bloomberg News (3/11, Ratnam, Cortez) reported, “Some in the military have questioned whether the name ‘post-traumatic stress disorder,’ designated by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980, carries its own stigma that discourages service members from seeking help and brands them as unstable.” Now, “as an alternative to changing the name, the psychiatric association is considering creating a separate category for PTSD that results from combat stress, said John Oldham, the group’s president and chief of staff at the Menninger Clinic in Houston. The new combat category may be included next year in the fifth edition of the association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).”

Related Links:

— “Pentagon tries Walmart therapy to combat PTSD, “Gopal Ratnam, The Bulletin, March 11, 2012.

In continuing coverage, CNN Newsroom (3/11, 6:23 p.m. ET) broadcast, “Lawmakers are putting pressure on…VA to improve” its mental healthcare services for veterans like Paul Raines, who returned from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Raines told CNN that he is getting more help from VA now than he did after first learning he had PTSD. At that time, according to Raines, he only received medication and had to wait more than two weeks to see a specialist. CNN showed footage of US Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) saying, “When a veteran has the courage to stand up and ask for help, VA must be there with not only timely access to care but also the right type of care.” CNN added, “VA says it’s reviewing mental health services at all its facilities.”

MedWire (3/14, Cowen) reports, “Around one-third of patients with bipolar disorder stop taking their medications against doctors’ advice within 1 year of starting treatment,” according to a study in the Journal of Affective Disorders. Researchers “studied 275 patients (65.1% women), aged an average of 39 years, with bipolar I or II disorder who received maintenance treatment” and “found that dropout rates at 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36 months after starting treatment were 10.9%, 20.4%, 24.7%, 33.8%, 44.0%, and 50.2%, respectively, with rates increasing rapidly over the first 3 months. … The most common reasons for dropout were “denial of therapeutic need” (34.8%), “lack of treatment efficacy” (23.2%), and “adverse drug events” (13.0%).”

Related Links:

— “Treatment dropout rates high in bipolar disorder patients,”Mark Cowen, MedWire News, March 14, 2012.