The AP (10/3, Virtanen) reports that starting in July 2018, New York state schools “will have to teach about mental health in their state-mandated health classes” under legislation signed into law on Sept. 30 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY).

Related Links:

— “NY law will require mental health education in schools,” MICHAEL VIRTANEN, Washington Times, October 3, 2016.

MedPage Today (10/3, Walker) reports that research indicated kids “with untreated primary hypertension turned in lower scores on tests measuring verbal and visual learning, and recall and verbal reasoning, versus normotensive controls.” The findings of the 75-child study were published in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Mental Deficits Seen in Kids With HTN,” Molly Walker, MedPage Today, October 3, 2016.

Healio (10/3, Pardes) reports, “Based on findings from its Pathways to Prevention Workshop,” the National Institutes of Health “has issued a final report that offers strategies for” preventing suicide in youths. The position paper was published online Oct. 4 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. An accompanying editorial “called for suicide prevention data to be linked to current data systems.”

Related Links:

— “NIH issues report on optimizing youth suicide prevention efforts,” Healio, October 3, 2016.

In continuing coverage, the New York Times (9/30, Bakalar, Subscription Publication) reported, “Hormonal contraceptives are associated with an increased risk for depression,” researchers found after studying “more than a million women ages 15 to 34, tracking their contraceptive and antidepressant use from 2000 to 2013,” and excluding “women who before 2000 had used antidepressants or had another psychiatric diagnosis.”

The large study also revealed that “the risk was greater in adolescent girls, but this may be because adolescent girls are especially susceptible to depression.” The findings were published online Sept. 28 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Psychiatric News (9/30) reported, “Former APA President Nada Stotland, MD,” MPH, “said the findings should not result in precipitate action by patients or their physicians.” Even though “the effects are significant, clinicians must compare them to what could happen if women were not on hormonal contraceptives, she added.”

Related Links:

— “Contraceptives Tied to Depression Risk,” NICHOLAS BAKALAR, New York Times, September 30, 2016.

In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal (10/2, Morgenthau, Subscription Publication), attorney and WWII veteran Robert M. Morgenthau calls on Congress and the Administration to take responsibility of veterans’ suicide rate being about double that of the general population. He applauds the work being done in many areas of the Department of Veterans Affairs in helping many veterans deal with mental health issues and PTSD.

However, the rate of suicide among veterans has remained unchanged and the VA has not been able to meet the needs of those it serves, Morgenthau asserts, calling for allowing veterans to access civilian mental-health services and improving treatment by expanding both public and private partnerships.

Related Links:

— “The VA’s Faltering Battle Against Veteran Suicide,” ROBERT M. MORGENTHAU, Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2016.