The Time (12/20, Szalavitz) “Healthland” blog points out, “While it’s not clear whether mental illness — alone or in combination with a developmental disorder — played any role in the devastating tragedy in Newtown, CT, the shootings have triggered a much-needed discussion about how we care for psychiatric patients. The debate has thrown a harsh light on the piecemeal nature of America’s mental health system, which is leaving too many children and young adults…without the resources they need.”

APA’s Jeste Sends Letter To Congressional Leaders On Issues Raised By Connecticut Tragedy. Psychiatric News (12/20) reported that on Dec. 20, “APA President Dilip Jeste, MD, sent a letter…on behalf of the Association to leaders of both the Senate and House of Representatives responding to the massacre in Newtown, Conn., and emphasizing that psychiatrists ‘stand ready to do whatever we can to help alleviate the suffering caused by the tragedy and to help the survivors cope with life after a trauma of this unimaginable magnitude.'” In addition, Dr. Jeste “expressed APA’s concern about proposals that have been voiced that target the mentally ill and media accounts that inaccurately portray people with mental illness.” Finally, Dr. Jeste “called on Congress to address the abundance and easy availability of guns, saying that APA believes that ‘any discussion on fostering a robust mental health delivery system must not be isolated from discussions of strategies to reduce gun violence.'”

Related Links:

— “America’s Failing Mental Health System: Families Struggle to Find Quality Care, “Maia Szalavitz, , December 20, 2012.

The CBS Evening News (12/20, story 5, 0:55, Garrett) reported that Biden “met with police chiefs and county sheriffs from around the country and he talked about the comprehensive approach to crime fighting he wrote into the 1994 crime bill. … White House officials say the Vice President will be comprehensive this time as well. Gun control will be included. There will also be efforts to expand access to mental healthcare services and create a national dialogue on violent movies and video games.”

The AP (12/21, Thompson) reports, “In response to the killing of schoolchildren in Connecticut, the federal government should consider California’s strategy for dealing with mental illness, experts and lawmakers said Thursday.” In California, “the Mental Health Services Act passed by voters in 2004 levied a special tax on high-income residents to pay for housing, medication, therapy and other services,” a tax that “has helped more than 60,000 Californians.”

The San Francisco Chronicle (12/21, Buchanan) reports, “In a letter to Vice President Joe Biden, state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, wrote that the nation needs to address the root causes of mental illness and expand access to services.” Steinberg “has asked the federal government to adopt the state’s model for mental health treatment and to match state funding for services nationwide.” Steinberg also “said he estimates the cost to the federal government would be about $20 billion annually if other states adopted California’s model.”

Related Links:

— “California offered as national mental health model, “Don Thompson, Associated Press, December 21, 2012.

In the wake of last Friday’s shootings in Newtown, CT, many in the US are calling for changes to gun laws. Many other Americans, however, are turning their focus to the state of mental healthcare in the US and are looking for ways to improve it to prevent similar tragedies from occurring. Improving mental healthcare will not be easy, however, due to national and state budget considerations, insurance coverage issues, and lack of access to competent care.

On an NBC Nightly News (12/19, story 6, 2:05, Williams) segment, NBC correspondent Ron Mott reported that last Friday’s tragedy and reports that shooter Adam Lanza may have been suffering from mental illness have made many Americans examine the state of mental healthcare in this country. Mott explained, “One in 17 Americans lives with a serious mental illness, and their symptoms range in severity. But fewer than a third receive professional treatment. Fewer professionals are entering the field, and rising costs have reduced the number of hospitals and clinics offering care.” Psychiatrist Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, of the Child Mind Institute, was shown saying: “We don’t treat the disorders from the neck up the way we do the rest of the body. So mental illness is not equal to physical illness and this is truly at our own peril.”

On its website, ABC News (12/20, Lupkin) reports, “Despite four shooting rampages since President Obama took office in 2009, mental health care continues to be hampered by budget cuts, closures, battles with insurers and stigma, doctors said. ‘We have very good treatments for mental illness that are highly effective,’ said Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association. ‘But they’re not widely available. People don’t have ready access to them.'”

Related Links:

— “Newtown Shooting Put Spotlight on U.S. Mental Health Care — Again, “Sidney Lupkin, abc News, December 19, 2012.

USA Today (12/20, Zoroya) reports that Command Sgt. Maj. Chris Faris, the senior non-commissioned officer for special operations says the US’ most elite fighting forces “are under more emotional strain after a decade of war than commanders realized.” Faris noted that a “tragic part of that is record suicides this year. … According to Pentagon data, there were 17 confirmed or suspected suicides this year among commandos or support personnel through Dec. 2, compared with nine suicides each of the past two years.” Faris added, however, that “despite signs of strain, this select category of troops remains capable of meeting any missions they are given.”

Related Links:

— “Stress on special operations troops ‘worse than we thought’, “Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, December 20, 2012.

The Wall Street Journal (12/20, A3, Dooren, Subscription Publication) reports the survey, conducted by the University of Michigan, found that cigarette smoking among adolescents in the US fell to record lows. Additionally, it found that a rise in marijuana use among teens appears to have leveled off. The annual report revealed that the number of teens who reported smoking cigarettes dipped to 10.6% in 2012 — down from 11.7% in 2011.

Marijuana Use Levels Off. Bloomberg News (12/20, Lopatto) reports that “marijuana use among US high school seniors is leveling off, ending four years of increases in annual prevalence,” according to the survey. Bloomberg News says that “thirty-six percent of high school seniors surveyed in 2012 said they smoked marijuana at least once in the previous year, the National Institute on Drug Abuse said.” Lloyd Johnston, a research professor at the University of Michigan who led the study, stated, “There isn’t much evidence for increasing use this year,” adding that the “use of a great many drugs are holding steady.”

Perception Of Marijuana Dangers At 20-Year Low. The AP (12/20, Yen) reports that “teenagers’ perception of the dangers of marijuana has fallen to the lowest level in more than 20 years,” the study says, “prompting federal researchers to warn that already high use of the drug could increase as more states move to legalize it.” According to the article, “the annual survey released Wednesday by the National Institutes of Health found that only 41.7 percent of eighth graders believe that occasional use of marijuana is harmful, while 66.9 percent regard it as dangerous when used regularly.” Moreover, “teens’ perception of marijuana risks diminished even more as they got older.” Approximately 20.6 percent of 12th graders indicated that occasional pot use is harmful, and about 44.1 percent thought that regular pot use was detrimental.

Related Links:

— “Teen Smoking Keeps Falling, “Jennifer Corbett Dooren, The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2012.

On the front of its Science Times section, the New York Times (12/18, D1, Quenqua, Subscription Publication) reports, “For young people exposed to gun trauma — like the students of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. — the road to recovery can be long and torturous, marked by anxiety, nightmares, school trouble and even substance abuse. Witnessing lethal violence ruptures a child’s sense of security, psychiatrists say, leaving behind an array of emotional and social challenges that are not easily resolved.” However, Glenn Saxe, MD, chairman of child and adolescent psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center, stated, “The data shows that the majority of people after a trauma, including a school assault, will end up doing OK.”

Related Links:

— “Children Can Usually Recover From Emotional Trauma, “Douglas Quenqua, The New York Times, December 17, 2012.

In continuing coverage, NBC Nightly News (12/17, story 5, 1:25, Williams) reported, “This tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut has already ignited a national conversation about guns, as we have just seen.” However, mental illness has been a “component…in all the serious gun crimes we have covered. One in 17 Americans lives with a serious mental illness, that’s according to the government, and their symptoms range in severity, of course. But fewer than a third of them receive treatment.” Chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman, MD, explained, “Less than 10% of our healthcare dollars are spent on mental healthcare.” While well-to-do people can pay for care and the poor may get some care through Medicaid, other people fall through the cracks.

American Medical News (12/17, Krupa) reports, “Physicians with mental illness are at a higher risk of committing suicide than nonphysicians,” according to a study published online Nov. 5 in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry. After evaluating “data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Violent Death Reporting System on 31,636 adult suicide victims in 17 states,” researchers found that “the 203 physicians in the study were more likely than nonphysicians to have a known mental health disorder or to have experienced recent job-related stress.” The piece goes on to note that physicians may be reluctant to seek help for a number of reasons, including the fact that they may be required by their state medical boards to self-report any psychiatric treatment.

Related Links:

— “Doctors shun the help that could cut suicide risk, “Carolyne Krupa, American Medical News, December 17, 2012.

In “The Mind” column for the New York Times (12/18, D5, Subscription Publication), psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman, MD, writes, “In the wake of the terrible shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., national attention has turned again to the complex links between violence, mental illness and gun control.” Dr. Friedman asserts, “All the focus on the small number of people with mental illness who are violent serves to make us feel safer by displacing and limiting the threat of violence to a small, well-defined group.” However, “the sad and frightening truth is that the vast majority of homicides are carried out by outwardly normal people in the grip of all too ordinary human aggression to whom we provide nearly unfettered access to deadly force.”

Related Links:

— “In Gun Debate, a Misguided Focus on Mental Illness, “Richard Friedman, The New York Times, December 17, 2012.