In an opposing viewpoint in USA Today (1/12, Fisher), psychiatrist Daniel B. Fisher, MD, PhD, an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, is against “increasing forced psychiatric treatment.” Instead, he writes, “my experience as a board-certified psychiatrist – and as someone who has recovered from schizophrenia – teaches me that we need to expand access to recovery-oriented mental health services and to make them more welcoming to increase engagement with people early in their distress.” According to Dr. Fisher, “Increasing access requires more funding for community-based services, not repealing the Affordable Care Act, leaving millions with mental health issues without services.”

Related Links:

— “Forced treatment is not the way: Opposing view,”Daniel B. Fisher, USA Today, January 12, 2017.

USA Today (1/12, Board) editorializes in wake of the recent Ft. Lauderdale, FL airport shootings that guns should be kept “out of the hands of” people with mental illness and not returned “to them on a silver platter.” USA Today hails as “a promising solution” the fact that “a handful” of states now “allow police or family members to seek a ‘gun restraining order’ in court against a person who presents a credible risk for violence.” Should the judge agree, “the person is barred from buying a gun or keeping ones he owns.”

Related Links:

— “Keep guns away from the mentally ill: Our view,”The Editorial Board, USA Today, January 12, 2017.

The CBS Evening News (1/12, story 9, 1:30, Pelley) reported, “Some of the nation’s top doctors and public health experts put out a landmark report today on the health effects of marijuana.”

USA Today (1/12, Hughes) says a report released Thursday by a federal panel of medical professionals concluded that marijuana “appears to be an effective treatment for chronic pain, nausea and symptoms of multiple sclerosis.” The report “says there’s ‘conclusive or substantial’ research backing the effectiveness of cannabis for those three conditions. But it also warns of dangers from marijuana use: an increased risk of car crashes, lower birth weight babies and problems with memory and attention with heavy use.” The panel “also found strong connections between heavy cannabis use and the development of schizophrenia and other psychoses.”

The AP (1/12, Ritter) reports the National Academics of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine “called for a national effort to learn more about marijuana and its chemical cousins, including similarly acting compounds called cannabinoids.” The report stressed the need for more scientific information so that patients, healthcare professionals and policy makers can have more evidence to make sound decisions.

Related Links:

— “Marijuana can help some patients, but doctors say more research needed,”Trevor Hughes, USA Today, January 12, 2017.

Reuters (1/11, Rapaport) reports, “Children who get more exercise may have fewer symptoms of depression than their peers who are less active,” researchers found after analyzing data on “795 kids at age 6, 699 at age 8 and 702 at age 10.” The findings were published online Jan. 11 in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Active kids less likely to be depressed later on,”Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, January 11, 2017.

Kaiser Health News (1/9, Luthra) reports that many patients and community health centers, which have benefited from the ACA through increased access to healthcare and new streams of revenue, respectively, now face uncertainty as Republicans and the incoming Trump Administration move to repeal the healthcare law. Two studies recently published in Health Affairs analyzing data from the Federal Health Resources and Service Administration to examine Medicaid for low-income people found that “in states that opted into the expansion, health centers saw more patient visits, lower rates of uninsured patients…and an increase in patients specifically seeking mental health care.”

Related Links:

— “Obamacare Boosted Community Health Centers’ Reach. Now What?,”Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News, January 9, 2017.