Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Consumer Group Asks FDA to Reject Vagal Stimulator for Depression Reuters Health story at Medscape - "Cyberonics Inc.'s request to market an implantable vagal nerve stimulator for treating chronic depression should be rejected by U.S. authorities, consumer group Public Citizen said on Wednesday. In a letter to the Food and Drug Administration, the group said Cyberonics had not proved the device was effective or safe for depressed patients. The company's studies provided little evidence that the device helped relieve chronic depression, Public Citizen said. Plus, concerns about worsening depression, suicide attempts and sudden deaths in the trials have not been fully investigated, the group said." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Dispelling stigmas of mental illness (New York) Journal News story on artist George Williams and "In Our Own Voices: Living with Mental Illness" - "... a new public education program sponsored by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Westchester, Inc. Every few weeks, Williams and other speakers talk to different groups of people about the real faces of mental illness. Along with dispelling stigmas, the discussion is meant to demonstrate that mental illness is a medical brain disorder that can be controlled with medication and therapy..."  
  

Advance Directives: Stigma Strikes Again  Brief essay in Psychiatric Services introducing two articles in the current issue - "Stigma's effects are often most pernicious when they are least conscious. A case in point: Do people with mental illness not develop physical ailments as well? Might they not have preferences for how they wish to be treated if they become seriously ill? If the answer to those questions is, "Yes, of course," then why—with all the attention paid in the past two decades to promoting advance directives for end-of-life care—have persons with serious mental illnesses been utterly neglected when it comes to efforts to stimulate the use of advance directives? Two papers by Foti and colleagues in this issue of Psychiatric Services underscore the irrationality of ignoring the needs and desires of people with mental illnesses with regard to end-of-life care. Interviewing a sample of community-dwelling patients, these authors found a high level of concern about end-of-life issues and strong interest in providing guidance to future decision makers about their treatment preferences." The articles by Foti et al are available for a fee.  
  

FDA goes straight to press  USA Today opinion column by Scott Gottlieb, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who was director of medical policy development at the Food and Drug Administration in 2003-04 - "...The FDA made a splash, through a press release, about new labeling to warn patients about an unapproved use of these atypical antipsychotic drugs in the treatment of symptoms of dementia. The approach echoed the one the FDA took with a recent "public health advisory" about a category of popular painkillers. That warning, which covered drugs such as Aleve and Advil, sent a wave of worry across the country as patients who didn't know better wondered whether they faced an increased risk of heart attacks. The problem with both warnings is the agency's message went to the media before reaching practicing physicians. My patient's misguided fears are not unique. It is what happens when medical regulation is enforced through the press."  
  

State Medicaid Developments Item in the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report on recent developments in Georgia, Iowa, Missouri and New Hampshire, with links to related news stories.  
  

Mental health treatment center evaluates inmates (New Mexico) Valencia County News-Bulletin story - "For the past year, inmates serving state prison time and in need of mental health treatment are being treated at the new, state-of-the-art facility in Los Lunas. Construction of the new 104-bed Mental Health Treatment Center, located at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas, was completed last February. The 58,000-square-foot facility is the first unit in the state that is designed specifically for mental-health treatment. ... David Wells, assistant mental health bureau chief and staff manager of the MHTC, says the center's main objective is to receive and treat inmates who have been identified at other prison facilities as not being able to function adequately in that population because of suspected mental disorders."  
  

Talks bring possible reprieve for clinic (Maine) Portland Press Herald story - " The state and a financially troubled mental health clinic are trying to find a way to keep the clinic open. The Portland Help Center says dwindling state funds mean it will have to close. ... The agency, one of many run by Spurwink to address mental illness and developmental disabilities, said it will have to close June 30 because of a shrinking state grant that pays for uninsured patients. Medicare and Medicaid pay for the others."  
  

Mental health: an 'unfinished revolution' (UK) Story in the Guardian - "Mental health, for so long the Cinderella service, may be about to go to the ball. There are clear signs that policy-makers are finally waking up to the enormous social and economic costs of mental distress, and to how those costs could be tackled. The third-term Labour government looks poised to take the agenda very seriously indeed. Playing fairy godmother in this context is Richard (Lord) Layard, professor at the London School of Economics, who is credited with much of the thinking behind Labour's New Deal and the successful attack on unemployment. The author of a recent acclaimed book on happiness, Layard addressed a pre-election seminar organised by the Downing Street strategy unit, where he presented a paper entitled Mental Health: Britain's Biggest Social Problem?" See also Layard's paper at the web site of the Prime Minister''s Strategy Unit.