In the “Mind” column in the New York Times (7/10, D6, Subscription Publication), Richard A. Friedman, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, writes, “Now comes the Affordable Care Act combining parity with the individual mandate for health insurance. As Dr. Dilip V. Jeste, president of the American Psychiatric Association, told me, ‘This law has the potential to change the course of life for psychiatric patients for the better, and in that sense it is both humane and right.'” While the law is not perfect, Dr. Friedman asserts that “on the whole, the Affordable Care Act is reason to cheer. Americans with mental illness finally have the prize that has eluded patients and clinicians for decades: the recognition that psychiatric illness should be on a par with all other medical disorders, and the near-universal mandate to make that happen.”

Related Links:

— “Good News for Mental Illness in Health Law, “Richard Friedman, The New York Times, July 9, 2012.

MedPage Today (7/10, Fiore) reports, “Patients who have a major physical health event may be more likely to seek mental health services,” according to a 6,017-patient study published online June 28 in the journal Health Services Research. “In a series of models, patients who had such an event were about three times more likely to seek mental healthcare during clinician visits and be prescribed drugs for their condition,” researchers reported. The study authors theorized that “the finding is probably due to worsening of mental health, rather than the identification of untreated severe psychiatric symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “Health Scare May Send People for Psych Help, “Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today, July 9, 2012.

The Buffalo (NY) News (7/10, Precious) reports, “While schools already can have anti-bullying bullying policies in place in their required codes of conduct, the new law further defines cyberbullying as part of a 2010 law meant to crack down on incidents of bullying in schools.” The new “law specifically defines cyberbullying as harassment taking place through any electronic means and that ‘reasonably causes or would reasonably be expected to cause physical injury or emotional harm to a student.'” The News adds, “For purposes of involvement by school districts, the incidents of cyberbullying of a student could occur on or off school grounds.”

Related Links:

— “Cuomo signs cyberbullying measure into law, “Tom Precious, Buffalo News, July 9, 2012.

The New York Times (7/10, B2, Meier, Subscription Publication) reports, “The Food and Drug Administration, overriding the advice of an expert panel, said Monday that it would not require doctors to have special training before they could prescribe long-acting narcotic painkillers that can lead to addiction.” The FDA, however, “said companies that make the drugs…would be required to underwrite the cost of voluntary programs aimed at teaching doctors how to best use them.” The Times adds, “In introducing the plan on Monday, both Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, the FDA commissioner, and R. Gil Kerlikowske, President Obama’s top drug policy adviser, said they were hopeful that Congress would eventually enact mandatory physician training,” although the Obama administration has not yet drafted legislation.

Related Links:

— “F.D.A. Won’t Order Doctors to Get Pain-Drug Training, “Barry Meier, The New York Times, July 9, 2012.

In print and in its “Well” blog, the New York Times (7/10, D6, Bakalar, Subscription Publication) reports, “Mothers face a significantly increased risk of death in the years following the death of a child,” according to an analysis published in the June issue of the journal Economics & Human Biology. “Using federal Census Bureau data, researchers tracked information on 69,224 mothers ages 20 to 50 over nine years.” Investigators found that “in the two years following the death of a child, the odds of the mother dying increased to more than three times that of mothers whose children survived. After two years, the difference narrowed, but it was still 22 percent higher for grieving mothers.”

Related Links:

— “Child’s Death May Raise Mother’s Mortality, “Nicholas Bakalar, The New York Times, July 9, 2012.