Daily Rounds: College Mental Health; Games Boost Brains; Where Pediatricians Are; How Much Vitamin D?

Serious Mental Health Needs Seen Growing at Colleges - NYTimes.com "National surveys show that nearly half of the students who visit counseling centers are coping with serious mental illness, more than double the rate a decade ago. More students take psychiatric medication, and there are more emergencies requiring immediate action....Experts say the trend is partly linked to effective psychotropic drugs (Wellbutrin for depression, Adderall for attention disorder, Abilify for bipolar disorder) that have allowed students to attend college who otherwise might not have functioned in a campus setting." (The New York Times)

Video Games Boost Brain Power, Multitasking Skills : NPR ""It turns out that action video games are far from mindless." Her studies show that video gamers show improved skills in vision, attention and certain aspects of cognition. And these skills are not just gaming skills, but real-world skills. They perform better than non-gamers on certain tests of attention, speed, accuracy, vision and multitasking." (npr.org)

Plenty of kids' doctors, but in the wrong places - Health - Kids and parenting - msnbc.com CHICAGO — "There are enough children's doctors in the United States, they just work in the wrong places, a new study finds. Some wealthy areas are oversaturated with pediatricians and family doctors. Other parts of the nation have few or none." (MSNBC)
Panel recommends less supplementing of calcium and vitamin D; some argue for more research - The Boston Globe "Roughly one in five American adults takes vitamin D and calcium supplements. But a long-awaited report released last month proclaimed the pills largely unnecessary for healthy people. The supplements provide no additional benefit according to the best available research, and too many can be dangerous, the report said."