The Baltimore Sun (7/29, Cohn) reports that Maryland health officials are seeking a waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to “use federal dollars to pay for Medicaid patients to get substance-abuse and mental-health treatment outside the state’s general hospitals.” Lifting the ban on such spending “would expand the options for people seeking care, allowing them to use community treatment facilities that specialize in those services and tend to be less costly than hospitals, said officials from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.”

Related Links:

— “Maryland seeks to expand access to drug, mental health treatment in the community,” Meredith Cohn, Baltimore Sun, July 28, 2015.

The AP (7/28, Crary) reports that mental illness is often “cited as a possible factor in…high-profile mass” killings. But, Renee Binder, MD, president of the American Psychiatric Association, explained, “Most people who suffer from mental illness are not violent, and most violent acts are committed by people who are not mentally ill.” According to 2102 estimates from the NIMH, “there were an estimated 9.6 million adults in the U.S. – 4.1 percent of the total adult population – experiencing serious mental illness over the previous year.” Dr. Binder pointed out, “If you look at that large pool of people, only a tiny proportion of them will eventually commit violence.” She added, “How are you going to identify them? It’s like a needle in a haystack.”

Related Links:

— “MENTAL HEALTH EXPERTS RESPOND CAREFULLY TO MASS KILLINGS,” David Crary, Associated Press, July 27, 2015.

The Washington Post (7/28, Berger) reports that although “a purified version of ecstasy, or MDMA, Molly is commonly thought to be a safe drug,” the version “sold on the street often is laced with other substances — such as acetaminophen, amphetamines and ketamine, a compound used in anesthesia — that can be deadly in large enough doses.”

Related Links:

— “Molly, a form of MDMA or ecstasy, can cause fatal reactions,” Susan Berger, Washington Post, July 27, 2015.

HealthDay (7/28, Preidt) reports that research offers “insight into how Facebook use by young women can lead to poor body image and risky dieting.” The research, which is published in the August issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, “included 128 college-aged women who completed an online survey about their eating habits and their emotional connection to Facebook…and whether they compared their bodies to friends’ bodies in online photos.” Investigators found that “women who had a greater emotional connection to Facebook were more likely to compare their bodies to their friends’ bodies and to engage in more risky dieting.”

Related Links:

— “Does Facebook Lead Young Women to Dangerous Diets?,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 27, 2015.

In a nearly 3,200-word piece to appear in its Aug. 2 Education Life section, the New York Times (7/28, Scelfo, Subscription Publication) reports that across the US, “the suicide rate among 15- to 24-year-olds has increased modestly but steadily since 2007: from 9.6 deaths per 100,000 to 11.1, in 2013 (the latest year available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention),” a trend also seen on US college campuses.

Now, “a survey of college counseling centers has found that more than half their clients have severe psychological problems, an increase of 13 percent in just two years.” The Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State University has found that “anxiety and depression, in that order, are now the most common mental health diagnoses among college students.” Students with mental health problems may run into difficulty getting a leave of absence to work through their problems, which may deter them from seeking help.

Meanwhile, on the front of its Personal Journal section, the Wall Street Journal (7/28, D1, Linden, Subscription Publication) reports on an increase in self-harm behaviors, primarily cutting, among adolescents of both genders, as a coping mechanism for those who cannot deal with strong emotions. In some cases, dialectical behavior therapy may be helpful for teens who self harm.

Related Links:

— “Campus Suicide and the Pressure of Perfection,” Julie Scelfo, New York Times, July 27, 2015.

The Washington Times (7/25, Blake) reported that on July 24, the CDC released a report warning of “the risks of consuming marijuana-infused edibles like weed brownies and other snacks.” The CDC report “said…there’s ‘a potential danger’ that comes with consuming marijuana-infused edibles, evidenced by an incident last March in which a 19-year-old man jumped to his death from the fourth-floor balcony of a Denver, Colorado, hotel while high.” The Denver Post (7/25, Paul) also covered the story.

Meanwhile, HealthDay (7/25, Preidt) reported that adolescents “who have legal permission to use medical marijuana are 10 times more likely to say they’re addicted than those who get the drug illegally,” according to a study published in the August issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. After looking “at nearly 4,400 high school seniors, including 48 who had medical marijuana cards, 266 who used others’ medical marijuana and those who bought the drug from street dealers,” researchers found that teenagers “who used medical marijuana were far more likely to report problems with addiction.”

Related Links:

— “Marijuana in edibles not risk-free, holds ‘potential danger,’ CDC says,” Andrew Blake, Washington Times, July 24, 2015.

In an editorial, the Washington Post (7/26) wrote, “The incarceration of mentally ill inmates is a national epidemic,” which is resulting in “pressure and proposals to divert some people charged with nonviolent and minor crimes to treatment rather than a cell.” While the Post acknowledges Montgomery County, MD has been “a laggard when it comes to devising innovative alternatives to warehousing the mentally ill behind bars,” it praises “key officials” for creating a task force to establish a mental health court to “channel some nonviolent offenders into community-based programs.”

Related Links:

— “A better option for the mentally ill,” Washington Post, July 25, 2015.

TIME (7/25, Sifferlin) reported, “Boys and girls as young as age eight can experience dissatisfaction with their bodies that can predict their risk for eating disorders later in life,” according to a study published in the July issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. After following “about 6,000 children until they were 14 years old,” researchers found that “at age eight, 5% of girls and 3% of boys were unhappy with their bodies.”

Related Links:

— “Kids Are Unhappy With Their Bodies as Young as Age 8,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, July 24, 2015.

Medscape (7/24, Melville) reported that a new meta-analysis published in The Lancet Psychiatry suggests that “smoking itself may play a causative role in the development of psychotic illness.” The analysis, which “included 61 studies with data through 2014 involving 14,555 tobacco smokers and 273,162 nonsmokers,” including international populations, found that “57% of people with a first episode of schizophrenia were already smokers, for an overall odds ratio of 3.22 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.63 – 6.33), with some evidence of publication bias.” In addition, “daily smokers were still approximately twice as likely to develop new psychotic disorders as nonsmokers (relative risk, 2.18; 95% CI, 1.23 – 3.85)” and developed such disorders about one year earlier than nonsmokers.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The AP (7/24, Merchant) reported, “Suicide is the leading cause of death in jails after natural illness.” People who are incarcerated “take their own lives three times more often than the average population, according to a 2010 study cited in the National Study of Jail Suicide.” A 2013 article on suicide in Texas jails that appeared in the LBJ Journal of Public Affairs said that jail environment stressors include “isolation, loss of control, conflict with other inmates or staff, frustration with legal proceedings, or distress and shame over incarceration.”

Related Links:

— “TEXAS JAIL DEATH FOCUSES NEW ATTENTION ON INMATE SUICIDES,” Nomaan Merchant, Associated Press, July 24, 2015.