News: Youth suicide epidemic worries lawmakers

News: New depression studies raise questions

News: Early intervention for psychosis gaining attention
When compared to countries with national health care, the U.S. delays early intervention in first-episode psychotic disorders. Several articles in the November issue of Psychiatric Services discuss strategic differences in responses, as well as model programs for doing so.
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Track Legislation: Preventing Indian youth suicide (S 1635)
Suicide rates among Native Americans range from 3 1/2 to 10 times greater (depending on the state) than for other youth in America, said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND). The Indian Affairs Committee heard testimony on behalf of the "7th Generation Promise: Indian Youth Suicide Prevention Act of 2009 (S 1635)" discussing the epidemic of suicide pointing to the mental health needs of the Indian Health Service. Dr. Yvette Roubideaux explained services are inadequate and fragmented, stitching together a combination of...
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News: Study of trauma, PTSD, and suicide
Not all assaultive trauma results in PTSD, but when it does, research indicates, there are greater risks for suicide. Results (n=1698) of a study of youth who were enrolled in a study when they entered first grade 15 years earlier indicated females made more suicide attempts than males. The youth came from Baltimore and the sample was nearly half male and 71 percent African-American. Suicide ranks as the third leading cause of death for people 15 to 24 years old,...
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News: Black youth and suicide
After the on-line suicide of a 19-year-old from Florida, Newsweek online spoke with University of Michigan expert, Dr. Sean Joe. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for black men. Joe noted that stigma influences "the ways in which men perceive what it means to seek help for mental-health issues."...
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News: Disorders seen in teens in adult system
Psychiatric disorders were diagnosed in two-thirds of a group of youthful offenders from Chicago's Cook County whose crime or age required their transfer to adult courts. A study appearing in Psychiatric Services (n=1,715) noted that "males from ethnic minority groups are among the least likely to receive mental health treatment, either in the community or in prison."...
Full Story | Topics: children, courts, legal, race, violence | Comments (1)

News: High suicide rates for Asian-American women
Language barriers, insurance costs and cultural values, including family honor and shame, often deter Asian-Americans from seeking help. According to an article in Newsweek, Asian-American women between the ages of 15-24 have the highest rates of suicide of women in the U.S., and those over 65 are ten times more likely to commit suicide than their Caucasian counterparts....
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News: Psychotherapy more expensive
Psychiatrists are likely to spend more of their time in tasks relating to medication management than in talking to patients, say authors of a study appearing in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Fewer than 30% of all visits to psychiatrists between 2004-2006 included psychotherapy, and patients who did receive this were more likely to be white than they were black or Hispanic. Financing may explain the shift and disparities. Reimbursement rates are higher for three 15-minute sessions managing medication than...
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News: Improving research designs
The May issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry includes editorials critical of standard research design for drug studies and those undertaken with insufficient attention to racial differences. “What is the meaning of the incremental cost of an active treatment compared with placebo when substantial costs attributed to the placebo exist only because of the research design?” asks one editorial, commenting on a drug study treating adolescents and depression. Another editorial laments that "'monocultural ethnocentrism" continues to pervade "good science"...
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Commentary: Race, genetics, metabolism: drug therapy and clinical trials
by L. DiAnne Bradford

Genes influence how drugs are metabolized. Yet most clinical drug trials are conducted on Caucasians, with little study of Asians and African Americans. Noted psychopharmacologist, Dr. DiAnne Bradford, writes about the impact of these genetic differences for drug therapies.
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News: Genes plus environment influence PTSD
A study (n= 900) published in the March 19th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) looks at the interaction of genes, stress and child abuse as risk factor for adult PTSD. The study was conducted in urban clinics and nearly all participants were African-American....
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News: Depression risk factor for black teens
A study of teen pregnancy (n=269), with mothers 12 to 17, calls race plus depression a “double jeopardy” risk factor. The authors believe their study of adolescent mothers, published in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, is the first to show that “depressive symptoms precede subsequent pregnancy and may be a determinant of this adverse outcome.”...
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News: Genes, race, medication
An NIMH-funded study (appearing in January issue of Biological Psychiatry) reports variations on the same gene, RGS4, have highly predictive values for response to antipsychotic medication, and that they are associated with ethnic differences. Groups were categorized by those with African, European, or “other” backgrounds, and some medication worked well with one group and not at all with another. The sample (n=678) was exposed to five different medications....
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News: Race differences in England's hospitals
Hospitalization for African Caribbean blacks living in England is three times higher than for others. The pattern speaks to a growing racial segregation in psychiatric hospitals. Admissions for blacks have increased every year since 2005 while the total number of public beds declined. At the same time treatments in private hospitals grew, according to a story from the BBC....
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News: Disparities in care
Several articles in the December issue of Psychiatric Services (fee required) address cultural and racial differences in seeking psychiatric help, how language and ethnicity affect treatment, and how resources are spent. Conspicuous differences emerge, including “less care to persons in African-American and Hispanic minority groups than to whites,” according to one study examining disparities between 2000-2004. Stigma around mental health services might also explain ethnic differences for seeking help by women with depression....
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News: Depression hits men
Gender stereotypes suggest men don’t, or shouldn’t get depression. But statistics say about 10 percent of them do experience depression at some time in their lives. Now a national campaign is tackling the reality in Spanish and English with local community events, educational resources, and the release of a film "Men Get Depression" in 2008. To kick of the campaign, a symposium at the Kaiser Family Foundation on Tuesday addressed disparities in male depression. Dr. David Satcher, the former Surgeon...
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News: Integrated model of primary care
A study appearing in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry found that integrating mental health and substance abuse treatments with primary care reduced racial disparities based on access. The conclusions are based on a randomizing 183 elderly patients at a single site....
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News: Britain's Mental Health Bill draws fire
Britain's new Mental Health Bill expands the list of professionals allowed to determine who can be detained against his or her will. Critics fear Community Treatment Orders will become racially divisive, and will target people of color for mandatory treatment. The bill had been widely opposed by the Commission for Racial equality, mental health professionals, and the clergy....
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News: Race-based epidemic in British hospitals
Dr. Kwame KcKenzie wonders why studies show a disproportionate number of Africans, Caribbeans, and black Britons admitted to London hospitals with mania or schizophrenia....
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News: Risk of depression doubles for Latino caregivers
A study of Latino caregivers (N=85) in California, Texas, and Wisconsin, confirmed that caring for a relative with schizophrenia leads to a greater sense of burden and stigma as well as a higher risk for depression. The authors recommend dedicating resources to family support alongside those of patient recovery....
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