Tuesday, September 07, 2004

NIH Proposes Free Access For Public to Research Data
Washington Post story - "The National Institutes of Health has proposed a major policy change that would require all scientists who receive funding from the agency to make the results of their research available to the public for free. The proposal, posted on the agency's Web site late Friday and subject to a 60-day public comment period, would mark a significant departure from current practice, in which the scientific journals that publish those results retain control over that information. Subscriptions to those journals can run into the thousands of dollars. Nonsubscribers wishing to get individual articles must typically pay about $30 each -- fees that can quickly add up for someone trying to learn about a newly diagnosed disease in the family."  
  

Involuntary Schizophrenia Patients Do as Well as Voluntary Ones
Psychiatric News story - "Patients treated involuntarily experience improvement that is similar to or even greater than that of the voluntary patients. The short-term outcome of inpatient treatment for schizophrenia is not dependent on whether the patient is undergoing treatment voluntarily or involuntarily. The finding provides some empirical evidence to ethically justify involuntary commitment and treatment of patients with schizophrenia from both a legal and a medical perspective, according to a study in the July Psychiatric Services."  
  

Personality Disorder Prevalence Surprises Researchers
Psychiatric News story - "Obsessive-compulsive is the most common type of personality disorder among U.S. residents, according to a population-based study of seven personality disorders, affecting almost 8 percent of adults. Almost 15 percent of Americans, or 30.8 million adults, meet diagnostic criteria for at least one personality disorder, according to the results of the 2001-02 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). Among several types of personality disorders studied, the most common personality disorder found among American adults in the large, population-based study was obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (7.9 percent, or 16.4 million people), followed by paranoid personality disorder (4.4 percent, or 9.2 million), and antisocial personality disorder (3.6 percent, or 7.6 million)."  
  

Serotonin-Related Abnormality Seen in Major Depressive Disorder
Reuters Health story at Medscape - "Tryptophan depletion studies in patients with and without a history of major depressive disorder (MDD) have revealed a disease-specific, serotonin-related process, researchers report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry." "med"  
  

Pediatricians Treating More Kids With Behavioral Problems
HealthDayNews story - "Pediatricians are diagnosing and treating an increasing number of children with behavioral health problems, but they don't always feel comfortable or adequately trained to do so, says a Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center study. Interviews with community pediatricians found that about 15 percent of the children they see have behavioral health problems. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common behavioral health condition seen by pediatricians, who expressed a high level of comfort with the diagnosis. But they felt less sure about dealing with children suffering from anxiety or depression. Less than half the pediatricians said they frequently diagnosed anxiety or depression in children. Those who did typically used questionnaires in making the diagnosis. The study appears in the September issue of Pediatrics."