Healio (2/28) reports that research indicated “mood and adjustment disorders, such as anxiety and depression, predicted the number of outpatient visits, hospital admissions and days spent in the hospital for patients with breast or prostate cancer.” Additionally, “between 2007 and 2014, the incidence of mood and adjustment disorders increased from 21% to 28% among women with breast cancer and from 9% to 13% among men with prostate cancer.” The findings were scheduled to be presented at the Quality Care Symposium.

Related Links:

— “Anxiety, depression predict increased medical use in patients with breast, prostate cancer,” Healio, February 28, 2017.

In a special report, STAT (2/6, Thielking) explains that colleges and universities across the US “are failing to keep up with a troubling spike in demand for mental health care – leaving students stuck on waiting lists for weeks, unable to get help.” After surveying “dozens of universities about their mental health services,” STAT discovered that “students often have to wait weeks just for an initial intake exam to review their symptoms.” Even “longer still” is the waiting time “to see a psychiatrist who can prescribe or adjust medication – often a part-time employee.”

Related Links:

— “,” MEGAN THIELKING, STAT, February 6, 2017.

The Winston-Salem (NC) Journal (1/29, Howse) reports that next month, the national Stepping Up Process to End Recidivism (SUPER) “initiative to reduce the number of people with mental illness in jails will start accepting participants.” The initiative’s goal is “to raise awareness of factors that contribute to the over-representation of people with mental illnesses in jails, and to develop practices and strategies to reduce the numbers.” Leading the “national initiative” are “the National Association of Counties, the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation.”

Related Links:

— “Forsyth County launching initiative to reduce number of people jailed who have mental illness,”Jordan Howse Winston, The Winston-Salem Journal, January 30, 2017.

Medscape (1/26, Melville) reports that “increasing evidence shows a bidirectional” association “between psychological stress and physical disease, as underscored in” research “linking posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to cancer as well as acute cardiovascular disease and stroke, according to two articles published in” The Lancet. In one study, investigators “outline the evidence supporting the role of PTSD as a potentially causative factor as well as a consequential factor in cardiovascular disease.” In the other “article, a qualitative review of PTSD and cancer, the authors report that studies involving various cancer types, including lung and breast cancer, show rates of traumatization and stress symptoms in approximately 37% to 60% of cancer survivors.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Medscape (1/26, Anderson) reports, “Getting a divorce increases the risk of developing an alcohol use disorder (AUD) by more than sevenfold for women and almost sixfold for men,” researchers found after identifying and then following “942,366 individuals born in Sweden between 1960 and 1990 who were married and residing with their spouse in or after 1990 and who had no AUD prior to marriage.” The findings were published online Jan. 20 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)