Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Emergency Department Trends From the Drug Abuse Warning Network, Final Estimates 1995–2002
Report (in Adobe Acrobat format) available through the Open Minds web site - "This issue of Emergency Department Trends From DAWN presents final estimates for 2002, with comparisons to 1995, 2000, and 2001. The revised estimates in the ED Trends From DAWN publication series supersede the estimates published previously for 1995 through 2001. The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) relies on a sample of hospitals operating 24-hour emergency departments (EDs) to capture data on ED visits induced by, or related to substance abuse. DAWN data do not measure prevalence of drug use in the population, but the probability sample of hospitals is designed to produce representative estimates of ED drug episodes and drug mentions for the coterminous3 United States and for 21 metropolitan areas."  
  

Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism: Research Concerns and Emerging Foci
Current Opinion in Psychiatry article at Medscape - "This review focuses on papers that pertain to recent work on Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism. We noted areas in which there was a preponderance of research published over the last year, including: social communication, sensory characteristics, eye gaze, neurocognitive aspects, comorbidity, and treatment and intervention studies." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Public Atlas of the Brain in the Works
New York Times story - "Backed by millions of dollars in financial support from Paul G. Allen, a founder of Microsoft, a team of scientists has set out to pinpoint the roughly 20,000 genes responsible for building and operating the human brain. From there, the scientists will put together a highly detailed atlas of the mammalian brain and make it available to the public through an online database. To accomplish that goal, they are relying heavily on the genome of the common mouse, which genetically bears remarkable similarities to humans..." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Overlooking racism may lead to undiagnosed mental health disorders
Vanderbilt University press release at EurekAlert - "Mental health professionals may be missing at least five novel mental health problems because the impact of racism is not considered when determining mental health, a new report suggests. Tony N. Brown, Vanderbilt University assistant professor of sociology, asserts in the report that standard mental health criteria may fail to capture a true picture of problems across racial groups. That failure in turn, leads to some psychological problems going unclassified and undiagnosed."