Wednesday, October 02, 2002

Tracking Health Care Costs: Growth Accelerates Again In 2001
Health Affairs article by Bradley C. Strunk, Paul B. Ginsburg, and Jon R. Gabel on the double digit increase in health care spending per capita. The article is also available in Acrobat format and includes a link to a Webcast of the press conference for the release of the article.  
  

The End of the Independent Psychiatric Institute
Article by Ivan Oransky in Real Healthcare on independent long-term institutions, which have "fallen on hard times and merged with major medical centers or found other ways to survive" - a development the author characterizes as psychiatry's "surrender to managed care."  
  

Drug hope for anxiety patients
BBC story on research findings at the University of California at San Francisco that could lead to "a new generation of anti-anxiety drugs" based on blocking a key enzyme in the brain which avoids the sedating effects often associated with anti-anxiety drugs. See also the university press release Blocking enzyme found to ease anxiety without causing sedation and a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill press release on other research that finds promising new targets for anxiety-reducing drugs.  
  

Young and Depressed
Newsweek cover story on the 3 million adolescents struggling with depression, many of whom "never get the help they need because of prejudice about mental illness, inadequate mental-health resources and widespread ignorance about how emotional problems can wreck young lives."  
  

HHS awards $14 million to improve care for homeless individuals
HHS press release on grants to expand and strengthen community substance abuse treatment services and primary health care for homeless individuals experiencing substance abuse disorders and/or mental illness. The release includes a list of grant amounts and projects.  
  

HHS Funds Drug Courts for Families, Juveniles and Adult Offenders
SAMHSA press release - "Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced over $10 million in funding for 28 community drug treatment courts to provide substance abuse treatment for parents charged with abuse and neglect of their minor children, juveniles, or substance abusing adults charged with criminal offenses. These grants will expand these courts, designed to target effective treatment services to break the cycle of child abuse or criminal behavior, alcohol or drug abuse and incarceration, by funding alcohol and drug treatment and additional services that support substance abuse treatment."