Thursday, August 28, 2003
3 Schizophrenia Drugs May Raise Diabetes Risk, Study Says August 25
New York Times front page article - "Three drugs commonly prescribed for schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses increased patients' risk of developing diabetes when compared with older antipsychotic medications, researchers said yesterday, presenting the results from a long-awaited study of patients treated at veterans hospitals and clinics across the country. The drugs Zyprexa, made by Eli Lilly, Risperdal, made by Jannsen Pharmaceutica, and Seroquel, made by AstraZeneca were associated with higher rates of diabetes than older generation drugs for schizophrenia like Haldol, the study found. But the increased risk was statistically significant only for Zyprexa and Risperdal, the researchers said, possibly because of the smaller number of subjects who took Seroquel." [Viewing
New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].
Child Welfare: Most States Are Developing Statewide Information Systems, but the Reliability of Child Welfare Data Could Be Improved A GAO report (in
Adobe Acrobat format) available at the
Open Minds web site - "HHS reported that 47 states are developing or operating a SACWIS, but many continue to face challenges developing their systems. Most state officials said they recognize the benefit their state will achieve by developing SACWIS, such as contributing to the timeliness of child abuse and neglect investigations; however, despite the availability of federal funds since 1994, states reported a median delay of 2-½ years beyond the timeframes they set for completion. States reported that they encountered some difficulties during SACWIS development, such as challenges receiving state funding and creating a system that reflected their work processes. In response to some of these challenges, HHS has provided technical assistance to help states develop their systems and conducted on-site reviews of SACWIS to verify that the systems meet federal requirements."
New Publications on Immigrant Health Care and Linguistic Access This page at the Kaiser Family Foundation site indexes and provises links to a number of new reports and related materials - "In 2000, there were over 32 million foreign-born residents in the U.S. Immigrants often face barriers to health coverage and health services. The disparities confronting immigrants can be similar to those faced by low-income working families generally, but immigrants also face other barriers, including linguistic issues and eligibility changes that have limited their ability to qualify for Medicaid. These new or updated publications address issues related to how race, immigration status, and language affect insurance coverage and access to care for non-citizens. Additionally, one report focuses on issues of linguistic access in health care settings and provides an overview of the current legal rights and responsibilities of health care service and coverage providers." Readers here may be especially interested in the basic
fact sheet and
Ensuring Linguistic Access in Health Care Settings: An Overview of Current Legal Rights and Responsibilities (both in
Adobe Acrobat format).
Sertraline May Be Helpful for Major Depressive Disorder in Children A new CME unit from
Medscape Medical News - "Sertraline may be helpful in treating children with major depressive disorder (MDD), according to the results of two randomized, placebo-controlled trials published in the Aug. 27 issue of
The Journal of the American Medical Association. The editorialist reviews the recent history of use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for MDD in children and reminds clinicians not to initiate treatment with paroxetine. He suggests that fluoxetine and sertraline may be preferable." [Viewing
Medscape resources requires registration, whish is free]. See also
the JAMA article, which is available at no charge.
Antidepressants Too Widely Prescribed in UK: Report Reuters Health story at
Medscape - "Antidepressant prescriptions issued by general practitioners in Britain more than doubled between 1975 and 1998 to 23.4 million per year--even though there is little evidence to justify such widespread use, according to a report in the latest edition of the
Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin. Possible reasons for the sharp rise in prescribing include greater awareness of depression, guidelines advocating that patients stay on therapy for at least 4 to 6 months after resolution of their symptoms, and industry promotion of selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, the report said.". [Viewing
Medscape resources requires registration, whish is free].
A Canadian approach to early intervention in psychosis An item in last week's
Mental Health Notes (CMHA) - "Early assertive psychosis detection and intervention helps reduce remission rates, improve patients self-rated quality of life, and decrease their duration of untreated psychosis, according to a study of a Canadian program published in the
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. The Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychoses (PEPP), established in 1997 in London, Ontario, provides clinical services in an early intervention and treatment setting. The Canadian authors of the study note that a major barrier to appropriate care is the difficulty of identifying early signs of psychosis. Treatment delays can also affect social functioning and quality of life."
Emergency Department Trends From DAWN: Final Estimates 1995 - 2002 The latest data published at SAMHSA's Drug Abuse Awareness Network (DAWN)
web site. From this page, a variety of related documents can be downloaded, including the
full text (in
Adobe Acrobat format) and a variety of tables (in
MS Excel format), presenting the data by drug category (with component drugs for selected categories), metropolitan areas, patient demographic characteristics and episode characteristics.
SAMHSA Proposes Standard Grant Announcements to Replace Current Formats SAMHSA press release - "The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration SAMHSA is soliciting comments on proposed changes in the way grants will be announced. SAMHSA is proposing to issue four standard grant announcements that will describe the general program design and provide application instructions for four types of grants - service grants, infrastructure grants, best practices planning and implementation grants, and service-to-science grants. These standard announcements will replace the 30-40 individual announcements for grant programs that SAMHSA has been issuing each year. The standard announcements will be used in conjunction with brief Notices of Funding Availability that will announce the availability of funds for specific grant funding opportunities." See also the page on
Proposed Changes in Announcement of SAMHSA Discretionary Grant Funding Opportunities.
