Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Helpful for Depression in Parkinson's Disease
Medscape Medical News story - "Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is as effective as fluoxetine for the treatment of depression in patients with Parkinson's disease, according to the results of a placebo-controlled trial published in the August issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry." "med"  
  

Depression, Substance Abuse Linger After Pregnancy
HealthDay story - "Women who binge drink, get depressed or smoke during their pregnancy boost their risk for depression and alcohol use after they give birth as well, a new study shows. 'Binge drinking, tobacco use and depression symptoms at any point during pregnancy predicted problems later,' said Gregory Homish, a research associate at the Research Institute on Addictions at the University at Buffalo and first author of the study, published in the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research."  
  

Data Show Increased Abuse of Methamphetamine in Midwest and East Coast
SAMHSA press release - "Drug abuse-related emergency room visits involving amphetamine/ methamphetamine increased 54 percent between 1995 and 2002, with significant increases in several metropolitan areas in the Northeast, Midwest and the South, according to a new report released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The DAWN Report on “Amphetamine and Methamphetamine Emergency Department Visits, 2002” is based on data from SAMHSA’s Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN). The report found almost 39,000 drug-abuse related emergency room visits involving amphetamines or methamphetamine, with sharp increases recorded between 1999 and 2002. The report combines amphetamine and methamphetamine because some standard drug screens do not differentiate between amphetamines and methamphetamine, and many hospitals list all these substances under the generic term amphetamine..." See also the SAMHSA page indexing resources to The DAWN Report: Amphetamine and Methamphetamine Emergency Department Visits, 1995-2002 and please note that the full report is available in Adobe Acrobat  format.