More on the Female Veteran Suicide Prevention Act:

The Female Veteran Suicide Prevention Act, H.R. 2915, would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to consider effectiveness and highest satisfaction rates for women during their evaluation of mental health care and suicide prevention programs. The bill was amended in committee to include the text of the Classified Veterans Access to Care Act, H.R. 421, which would set a standard that veterans who served in classified missions are not asked to disclose classified information as a part of their mental health care.

More on the Career-Ready Student Veterans Act:

The Career-Ready Student Veterans Act, H.R. 2360, would add to the criteriafor Veterans Affairs education assistance programs to approve non-accredited courses. It would require that any program designed to prepare for a licensed occupation in a state be approved by the state agency that requires the license, and that any program designed to prepare for certification in a state meet the instructional requirements of that state.

Published in The Journal of Counseling & Development, the study found that people were less tolerant toward individuals who were described as being "mentally ill" as opposed to "people with mental illness."

According to study coauthor Darcy Haag Granello, professor of educational studies at the Ohio State University, the findings suggest that language choice when referring to a person with a mental illness is not simply a matter of "political correctness."

"This isn't just about saying the right thing for appearances," she says. "The language we use has real effects on our levels of tolerance for people with mental illness."

An average of 30 years had passed since the traumatic events that had left them depressed, anxious, irritable, hypervigilant, unable to sleep well and prone to nightmares.

But for 12 people who were involved in a UCLA-led study -- survivors of rape, car accidents, domestic abuse and other traumas -- an unobtrusive patch on the forehead provided considerable relief from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"We're talking about patients for whom illness had almost become a way of life," said Dr. Andrew Leuchter, the study's senior author, a UCLA professor of psychiatry and director of the neuromodulation division at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. "Yet they were coming in and saying, 'For the first time in years I slept through the night,' or 'My nightmares are gone.' The effect was extraordinarily powerful."

TNS is a new form of neuromodulation, a class of treatment in which external energy sources are used to make subtle adjustments to the brain's electrical wiring -- sometimes with devices that are implanted in the body, but increasingly with external devices. The approach is gaining popularity for treating drug-resistant neurological and psychiatric disorders.

TNS harnesses current from a 9-volt battery to power a patch that is placed on the user's forehead. While the person sleeps, the patch sends a low-level current to cranial nerves that run through the forehead, sending signals to parts of the brain that help regulate mood, behavior and cognition, including the amygdala and media prefrontal cortex, as well as the autonomic nervous system. Prior research has shown abnormal activity in those areas of the brains of PTSD sufferers.

"The chance to have an impact on debilitating diseases with this elegant and simple technology is very satisfying," said Dr. Ian Cook, the study's lead author.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are the most commonly prescribed drugs for depression.

However, there have been reports of deaths, suicide and violence by people taking these drugs. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have warned of antidepressants leading to suicide among young adults aged 18-24 years.

The FDA recommend monitoring for all patients taking antidepressants to check for worsening of symptoms, suicidal tendencies and any unusual changes in behavior.

the risk of suicide and aggression was doubled. Results also showed that previous trials had failed to report adverse effects and were marred by design faults. Comparisons between clinical study results and data from listings or patient narratives showed that deaths and suicide had been wrongly classified for people using antidepressants.

One pharmaceutical company misreported four deaths in favor of the antidepressant, and over 50% of suicidal incidents were put down to "emotional lability" or "worsening of depression."

Eli Lilly recorded most of the deaths that occurred, but they failed to note 90% of the attempted suicides. Information on other outcomes was lacking.

The authors describe these results as "even more unreliable than we previously suspected."

They explain that it is difficult to assess the true risk of serious incidences arising from antidepressant use because events are relatively rare, and poor design and reporting of the trials makes accurate estimations difficult.

The researchers suggest treating depression in children with exercise or psychotherapy, where possible. They also they call for "hidden information" from trial reports to be identified to create a more accurate reflection of the good and bad effects of drugs.

One limitation of the study is that reports and listings were not available for all trials and all antidepressants.

While past research has tended to focus only on specific sports or genders, this study examined whether the prevalence of symptoms varied between gender and across nine different sports: baseball/softball, basketball, cheerleading, crew, field hockey, lacrosse, track and field, soccer and tennis.

During their annual sports medicine physicals, the athletes completed anonymous surveys that asked questions about their mood, appetite, attention, relationships and sleep habits. Based on the responses, the student athletes were assessed for depression using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD).

The researchers found that nearly 24 percent of the 465 athletes reported a "clinically relevant" level of depressive symptoms, and 6 percent reported moderate to severe symptoms. Across all sports, female athletes had a significantly higher prevalence rate for depressive symptoms than men, 28 percent compared to 18 percent.

According to the Depression in Visual Impairment Trial (DEPVIT), 43% of people who lose their sight go on to battle depression, however NHS low vision services focus only on the physical need, and psychological screening or therapy is not yet an integral part of rehabilitation. The study also found that of those who screened positive for depressive symptoms almost three-quarters (74.8%) were not receiving any treatment for their depression. Currently just two out of 638 low vision services in Britain regularly screen patients for depression.

The Case For Early Intervention

First, High-Cost Mental Health Patients Are Much Younger Than Other High-Cost Patients.

The authors found that 79 percent of high-cost mental health patients were under the age of 60. But only 39.7 percent of other high-cost patients were under age 60.

Chronic diseases affecting the heart, lungs, and other organs are often diseases of aging. But half of all mental illnesses begin by the age of 14, three-quarters by the age of 25. For individuals with mental illnesses, the costs often start adding up early.

Second, The Researchers Suggested That High-Cost Mental Health Patients Did Not (Yet) Manifest Other Chronic Diseases.

Their data suggested that only 10 percent of mental health high-cost patients had a hospitalization that wasn’t related to mental health needs. They explain this in part because of the young age of the high-cost mental health patients.

This disparity in utilization of non-mental health hospitalizations among high-cost mental health patients could also be due to the increased mortality rates among younger individuals with mental illness. Americans with major mental illness die on average 14-32 years earlier than the general population.

There may be another answer. Mental illnesses could precede other chronic conditions, which in turn become more costly as people age.

Third, High-Cost Mental Health Patients Were More Likely To Be Hospitalized Than Were Non-Mental Health High-Cost Patients.

The disproportionate use of hospitalizations among high-cost mental health patients is a result of our failure to act early. Not too long ago, schizophrenia was thought to be a lifetime sentence of profound disability, with little hope of being able to participate in the community. But we are learning more about schizophrenia every day, and what we are learning highlights the importance of intervening early.

Early intervention around psychosis has long-term positive effects, including a reduction in hospitalizations for five years or more. When services are offered in the community, not in a hospital setting, individuals live more independent lives. This has the added benefit of holding down costs.