The Washington Post (1/24, Johnson, Weiner) reports a “wave of heroin overdoses” that is killing dozens of people in Maryland and Virginia “inner-city neighborhoods, suburbs and rural enclaves.” Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R) and Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe have scrambled to make fighting the latest heroin surge afflicting their states. The Post says the “governors’ actions reflect mounting concern among public officials up and down the East Coast about the escalation in overdoses, which some say has become a public health epidemic.” The Post adds that experts say there is “no simple or inexpensive cure for heroin addiction — and there are differing views on which approach to try first.”

Related Links:

— “Overdose deaths from heroin galvanizing leaders in Maryland and Virginia,” Jenna Johnson and Rachel Weiner, Washington Post, January 24, 2015.

In an opinion piece in the Boston Globe (1/24), writer Ruth Graham wrote that in 2014, “a program called Mental Health First Aid received federal funding for the first time.” In the US, approximately 300,000 individuals have been trained in Health First Aid. While “the program has the support of many mental health professionals, who say that its broad approach to a wide array of mental health emergencies is sorely needed,” Graham writes that such “programs also inadvertently illuminate the extraordinary complexity of mental illness, and the limitations of a fraying safety net.”

Related Links:

— “The promise and limits of ‘mental health first aid’,” Ruth Graham, Boston Globe, January 23, 2015.

Reuters (1/24, Kennedy) reported that according to a study published online Jan. 8 in The Lancet, a school-based program designed to prevent suicide appears to diminish the likelihood that adolescents will want to commit suicide or attempt suicide. Some 11,000 high-school students in Europe took part in the study.

Related Links:

— “School-wide prevention program lowers teen suicide risk,” Madeline Kennedy, Yahoo News, January 23, 2015.

HealthDay (1/23, Norton) reports that a study recently published online in the journal Acta Neuropathologica suggests that “the brains of some veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who were injured by homemade bombs show an unusual pattern of damage.” After studying “autopsied brain tissue from five US combat veterans” who had survived blasts from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and then comparing those samples with autopsied brain tissue from 24 people who died from various causes, researchers found “a distinct pattern of damage to nerve fibers in key regions of the brain – including the frontal lobes, which govern memory, reasoning and decision-making.” The study authors theorized that this damage pattern may help “explain the phenomenon of ‘shell shock.’”

Related Links:

— “‘Hidden’ Brain Damage Seen in Vets With Blast Injuries,” Amy Norton, HealthDay, January 22, 2015.

McClatchy (1/23, Wise, Subscription Publication) reports in continuing coverage that a measure aimed at reducing veteran suicides is “on the verge of final passage” now that its leading critic, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has left the Senate. Coburn blocked the measure in December “citing cost concerns,” but supporters “say extra funds aren’t necessary to consolidate and improve the Department of Veterans Affairs’ suicide prevention programs,” and they “expect the bill to get another shot at final passage in the Senate in the coming days.”

Related Links:

— “Bill to prevent vets’ suicides raises questions about funding,” Lindsay Wise, McClatchy, January 23, 2015.

The New York Times (1/22, A14, Carey, Subscription Publication) reports that research (1/22) published online Jan. 21 in Nature suggests that “the surge of emotion that makes memories of embarrassment, triumph and disappointment so vivid can also reach back in time, strengthening recall of seemingly mundane things that happened just beforehand and that, in retrospect, are relevant.”

NBC News (1/22, Fox) reports on its website that “the findings…suggest there could be a good way to improve peoples’ memories – perhaps people who are beginning to forget things, like early Alzheimer’s patients, says” Lila Davachi, “who oversaw the experiments.”

Fox News (1/22) reports on its website that the investigators “agreed that the study’s results prove the memory system is highly adaptive and more complex than previously thought.”

Related Links:

— “How the Brain Stores Trivial Memories, Just in Case,” Benedict Carey, New York Times, January 21, 2015.

The Congressional Quarterly (1/22, O’Brien, Subscription Publication) reports that yesterday, by a vote of 15 to 0, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee approved HR 203, the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, a measure that “would require annual third-party evaluations of Veterans Affairs Department mental health and suicide-prevention programs and promote collaboration between the VA and non-profit mental health organizations to stem the epidemic of veteran suicides.” The proposed legislation, which is “named for Clay Hunt, a Marine veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and committed suicide in 2011 at age 28,” would also “create a pilot program to repay the loans of some psychiatrists who agree to serve in the Veterans Health Administration.”

Related Links:

— Congressional Quarterly (requires login and subscription)

The Philadelphia Inquirer (1/21, Burling) reports that in a paper published in the Jan. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, bioethicists from the University of Pennsylvania make the argument “for the return of the mental asylum.” In the article, called “Improving Long-term Psychiatric Care, Bring Back the Asylum,” the bioethicists argue that the US “has too few inpatient beds for people with serious mental illnesses.” For that reason, some people with severe mental illnesses “are winding up homeless or in prison, nursing homes, and hospital emergency departments.” The authors of the paper use the “original meaning” of the word asylum, that is, “a place of safety, sanctuary, and healing, or at least dignified healing for people who are very sick.”

Related Links:

— “Penn ethicists call for a return of the mental asylum
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/health/mental-health/20150121_Penn_ethicists_call_for_a_return_of_the_insane_asylum.html#lxwcHSF1eu1q0pSR.99,” Stacey Burling, Philadelphia Inquirer, January 21, 2015.

The Portland (ME) Press Herald (1/18, Lawlor) reported that “a program started at Maine Medical Center…has become a national model for early detection and treatment of mental illness.” Called the Portland Identification and Early Referral (PIER) program, the program “has gained a foothold in several states – including California – and as it expands it has attracted national media attention.”

The program detects the earliest symptoms of serious mental illnesses and treats them before problems become severe. In Maine alone, “symptoms turning into a ‘full-blown psychotic diagnosis’ fell 26 percent in the Portland area over a six-year period in the 2000s, but rose 8 percent in other parts of the state, where the PIER program was not in place, according to a study published in October in Psychiatric Services scholarly journal,” a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Maine treatment for mental illness serves as national model,” Joe Lawlor, Portland Press Herald, January 18, 2015.

The Hill (1/20, Ferris) reports a study by the National Institutes of Health has found that a “‘substantial percentage’ of people who drink alcohol regularly also take medications that could pose dangerous health risks.” The study says approximately 42 percent of drinkers reported taking medications while they drink that are “known to interact with alcohol” and “nearly 80 percent of people over the age of 65 reported taking medications while drinking.” Dr. George Koob, who director of “NIH’s program on alcohol abuse” states that that “Combining alcohol with medications often carries the potential for serious health risks.”

Related Links:

— “4 in 10 drinkers mix with medication, NIH study finds,” Sarah Ferris, The Hill, January 19, 2015.