Friday, September 03, 2004

Back to her roots
Article in the latest APA Monitor - "Psychologist Tawa Witko advocates for the American Indian community and seeks to give urban American Indians a stronger sense of their heritage. ... Witko lives and works with her tribe--the Lakota Sioux--on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, providing counseling for victims of domestic abuse. As chair of APA's Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA), she also works to raise awareness in APA of the mental health needs of American Indians and to support other psychologists who want to work with the American Indian community."  
  

Which Medical Conditions Account For The Rise In Health Care Spending?
Health Affairs article - "We calculate the level and growth in health care spending attributable to the fifteen most expensive medical conditions in 1987 and 2000. Growth in spending by medical condition is decomposed into changes attributable to rising cost per treated case, treated prevalence, and population growth. We find that a small number of conditions account for most of the growth in health care spending—the top five medical conditions accounted for 31 percent. For four of the conditions, a rise in treated prevalence, rather than rising treatment costs per case or population growth, accounted for most of the spending growth." The article notes that "the prevalence of mental disorders has remained relatively stable over time; however, rates of treatment have been rising.13 The sharp rise in treated prevalence reflects two trends: increasing recognition and diagnosis of mental disorders, particularly depression and a rapid expansion of new psychotropic medications. Given the historical underdiagnosis and treatment of disorders such as depression, this wider use of treatments, and the associated increase in health care spending, is likely to represent benefits that outweigh the cost  
  

Canadian Provinces Keep up Pressure for Drug Plan
Reuters Health story at Medscape - "Canada's provincial leaders held Prime Minister Paul Martin's feet to the fire on Thursday over his election pledge to devise a nationwide plan to cut the spiraling costs of prescription drugs. But the premiers of the country's 10 provinces and three territories, girding for a new showdown with Ottawa over health care, said there was some room for negotiation amid claims by Martin's minority government that a nationally funded pharmacare program would be too expensive." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Physical Symptoms in Depressed Patients May Persist
Reuters Health story at Medscape - "Somatic symptoms that often accompany depression are less likely to resolve with antidepressant treatment than are the depressive symptoms themselves, new study findings suggest. Although physical symptoms are common in patients treated for clinical depression, there has been little research on outcomes, Dr. Kurt Kroenke and his colleagues report in the August issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine." "med"  
  

Mutual Support Groups: What Everyone Needs to Know
CSAT webcast - "For decades, an ever increasing number of mutual support groups have helped individuals and families overcome addictions and lead healthy and fulfilling lives. Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, Narcotics Anonymous, NarAnon, Smart Recovery, Women for Sobriety, and Moderation Management are but a few of the mutual support groups that are helping to make a difference. This program explores the role of mutual support group and helps you discern whether one might be right for you or someone you care about. This program highlights what makes mutual support groups work and lets you know how to find one near you. It also gives helpful tips for health care providers, employers, the criminal justice system, and educators for incorporating mutual support groups into their operations." This link leads to a page that contains information and assistance on the technologies required to view the webcast and the webcast itself.  
  

New eating disorders model includes personal, sociocultural, and relational variables
NewsRx.com item reprinted at PsycPORT - "A new eating disorder (ED) symptomatology model includes personal, sociocultural, and relational variables, and shows that each variable makes a unique contribution. 'Despite many theorists' assertions and researchers' findings that eating disturbances have personal, sociocultural, and relational correlates, no model of eating disorder symptomatology incorporating all three of these domains has been proposed,' according to T.L. Tylka and associates at Ohio State University."  
  

GlaxoSmithKline Starts Releasing Drug Data
AP story at Yahoo - "GlaxoSmithKline PLC has taken a first step toward fulfilling a promise to disclose the results of every drug trial it sponsors by posting results on the Internet. The pharmaceutical company on Wednesday said it had posted summaries of dozens of clinical trials concerning the diabetes medication rosiglitazone in its new online registry. Glaxo sells the drug under the brand name Avandia. Results of other drug trials will be added to the registry later as summaries are compiled..."  The story notes that Glaxo's clinical trials registry is available to the public, "although the summaries are highly technical and may appear incomprehensible to an untrained reader."  
  

Disaster Workers Have High Rate of Stress Disorders
Reuters Health story at Yahoo - "Firefighters and other first-responders to disasters often face both immediate and long-term psychological effects, researchers report, but early symptoms may help identify those at greatest risk of lasting problems. In a study of 207 rescue workers who responded to a U.S. airliner crash, researchers found that just over 40 percent developed either acute stress disorder shortly afterward, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression over the following year. Many subjects had two or all three disorders, as one often increased the risk of developing the others. "  
  

SAMHSA and ASAM Join Forces to Provide Support to Physicians Treating Opiate Addiction with Buprenorphine
SAMHSA press release - "The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today announced a cooperative agreement with the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), a specialty organization of addiction medicine physicians, to develop a mentoring program for internists, family medicine specialists, primary care physicians, pain specialists, psychiatrists and other non-addiction medicine physicians who are treating patients addicted to prescription narcotic pain medications or heroin with buprenorphine medications. Using a three-year SAMHSA grant of $499,681 annually, ASAM will create a physician clinical support system that will provide a national network of 50 trained physician mentors with expertise in treating addiction to opioids (narcotic pain medications and heroin) with buprenorphine. The mentors will represent the medical specialty training societies permitted by law to provide required training to physicians on use of buprenorphine."  
  

Trends in Access to Needed Medical Care, 2001-2003
A tracking report from the Center for Studying Health System Change - "Despite sluggish economic growth and rapidly rising health care costs, Americans' access to needed medical care improved between 2001 and 2003, especially among low-income children and adults, according to findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) nationally representative Community Tracking Study Household Survey. In particular, the proportion of low-income, uninsured Americans who reported going without needed medical care fell by 3.2 percentage points to 13.2 percent in 2003, and unmet medical needs for low-income children decreased to the point where income-related differences in access to care for children have disappeared."  
  

Congress Can Preserve $1.1 Billion in Expiring Children's Health Insurance Funds and Help Avert SCHIP Cutbacks
A report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - "When Congress returns from its summer recess, it will have the opportunity to enact bipartisan legislation to extend the availability of nearly $1.1 billion in expiring federal funds for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Such legislation would help lessen or defer looming cuts in children’s health insurance enrollment by providing more adequate federal funding to states that will face federal SCHIP funding shortfalls over the next several years...." Also available in Adobe Acrobat format.  
  

State hospitals overflowing with mental health patients (Kansas)
AP story at the Kansas City Star - "State budget cuts and the growth of the sexual-predator unit at Larned State Hospital are blamed for a backlog of about 50 inmates waiting for admission to the mental health facility. About half of the inmates on the waiting list need court-ordered evaluations to determine whether they are competent to stand trial, as well as for an array of other reasons. The other inmates need mental health treatment, said Mark Schutter, superintendent of Larned State Hospital. The backlog comes as the hospital's security program has lost 40 beds within the last couple years..."  
  

Improve access to mental health care, says report (Canada)
Story at the web site of the Prince Edward Island division of CBC - "Some Islanders struggling with serious mental illness are also struggling to get the help they need, according to a recent report by the P.E.I. division of the Canadian Mental Health Association. Commissioned by the province, the study looked at what services are available on P.E.I. for people with serious and persistent mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia..."  
  

Texas Merges Drug Treatment, Mental Health Services
Join Together item based on a Houston Chronicle story - "Saying their goal is improving public health, Texas government officials are dissolving the state Department of Health, the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, and the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation to create two new agencies: the Department of State Health Services and the Department of Aging and Disability Services..."  
  

Police mental health training helps families cope (Wisconsin)
Journal-Sentinel story on "a new and free training program on mental health issues that is now available to area departments. ... The mental health training program for law enforcement officers grew out of concerns that the judicial route was not always the best path for some of the people ending up in circuit court and subsequently, jail, Racine County Circuit Court Chief Judge Gerald Ptacek told the police chiefs group."