McClatchy (11/28, Doyle) reports on “a legal debate that’s consuming the Pentagon, as well as the nation’s top military appeals court.” That is whether soldiers who attempt suicide should be prosecuted under the “military law that makes ‘self-injury’ a potential criminal offense.” Senior Judge Walter T. Cox III “and the four other members of the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces sounded deeply ambivalent about the complexities involved in prosecuting members of the military who try to kill themselves,” though they “also sounded hesitant about ruling out prosecution altogether.”

Military Court Hears Appeal Of Private Convicted Of Self-Injury. The Military Times (11/28, Tilghman) reports, “The military’s highest court Tuesday hammered attorneys on both sides of a controversial case involving vexing questions about whether commanders should have authority to court-martial troops who try to commit suicide.” The case involved Marine Pvt. Lazzaric Caldwell, who “was convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s Article 134, known as the General Article, because the judge found his self-injury was prejudicial to good order and discipline and brought discredit upon the service.” The Court of Appeals for the Armed Services is now hearing oral arguments on the case.

Related Links:

— “In suicide epidemic, military wrestles with prosecuting troops who attempt it,”Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers, November 27, 2012.

HealthDay (11/28, Mozes) reports, “Despite concerns to the contrary, American children do seem to be getting adequate sleep,” according to a study published online Nov. 26 in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. “The finding stems from an in-depth look at current sleep norms among infants and children, as reflected by data collected in 1997 — with follow-ups in 2002 and 2007 — by a large National Science Foundation survey that set out to assess behavioral and mental health development from birth through age 18.” The study’s lead author stated, “Our estimates are in line with the amount of sleep recommended for children by the [US] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which suggests that children in the US are getting an appropriate amount of sleep on average.”

Related Links:

— “U.S. Kids Getting Enough Sleep After All: Survey, “Alan Mozes, HealthDay, November 27, 2012.

The Time (11/26, Szalavitz) “Healthland” blog reports, “Critics have long feared that stimulants simply drug children” with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [AD/HD] “into submission, turning youngsters into compliant robots with no will to engage in defiant behavior.” However, UK researchers “interviewed 151 American and British children aged nine to 14 who were taking medication for AD/HD between 2008 and 2010. Their conclusion? ‘On balance, children report that stimulant drugs improve their capacity for moral agency,'” the study authors wrote, “explaining that most felt the drugs allowed them to make better choices.”

Related Links:

— “ADHD Medications Improve Decision-Making, But Are They Being Over Used?, “Maia Szalavitz, TIME, November 26, 2012.

The Washington Post (11/24, Whoriskey) reported that in a review of articles published in the New England Journal of Medicine, “60 were funded by a pharmaceutical company, 50 were co-written by drug company employees and 37 had a lead author, typically an academic, who had previously accepted outside compensation from the sponsoring drug company in the form of consultant pay, grants or speaker fees.” One reason for that is that “since about the mid-1980s, research funding by pharmaceutical firms has exceeded what the National Institutes of Health spends.” The Post noted that in 2011, spending totals were $39 billion from industry and $31 billion from the NIH, and the Post adds that “over the past decade corporate interference has repeatedly muddled the nation’s drug science, sometimes with potentially lethal consequences.” As examples, the Post cites the “controversies over blockbuster drugs…erupted amid charges that the companies had shaped their research to obscure the dangerous side effects.”

Related Links:

— “As drug industry’s influence over research grows, so does the potential for bias, ” Peter Whoriskey, The Washington Post, November 24, 2012.

USA Today (11/26, Lloyd) reports that “people who burn off the most energy have healthier, younger brains compared with adults who do less,” according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. After using magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of 876 seniors, researchers found that “those who burned the most calories had 5% more gray matter.”

Related Links:

— “Burning energy may bulk up your brain cells, “Janice Lloyd, USA TODAY, November 23, 2012.