Thursday, October 24, 2002

Children's Health Plan At Center of Dispute
Washington Post article on CHIP, which is "provoking a fresh dispute among the Bush administration, Congress and a growing number of states about whether some of its basic rules need to be changed. The issue revolves around concern that the program is not providing enough money to states, which as the federal government's partners contribute about 30 percent of the cost and determine coverage eligibility."  
  

Researchers Say They Have Little Input in Studies Sponsored by Drug Companies, Survey Indicates
Item in the Kaiser Network Daily Health Policy Report based on a study in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, which indicates that "most research contracts between academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies that fund clinical trials do not follow guidelines issued last year to prevent bias and conflict of interest in published research."  
  

UNC forms Conte Center for multidisciplinary schizophrenia research
University of North Carolina School of Medicine press release at EurekAlert - "The Department of Psychiatry at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a five-year grant of over $9.3 million to form a new Silvio O. Conte Center for the Neuroscience of Mental Disorders to study the onset of schizophrenia. The new center brings together a diverse group of experts from four universities to conduct comprehensive studies of brain development in the earliest stages of life through early adulthood, when the disease is typically diagnosed."  
  

Questionnaire identifies depressions in children
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research press release at EurekAlert - "Developmental psychologist Jessica van Mulligen from the University of Nijmegen has compiled a questionnaire to detect depressions in children aged six to eight years. The questionnaire is more attuned to the typical symptoms of young depressive children than a much used American questionnaire."  
  

Researchers Closer to Finding Genetic Cause Of ADHD
HealthScout News story at Yahoo - "Researchers have taken a major step toward finding the genetic underpinnings for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a discovery they hope will lead to better diagnosis and treatment. Interestingly, the chromosomal region implicated in ADHD is the same region that previous research has linked to autism....  
  

Partnership for a Drug Free America Attitude Tracking Study 2002
Press release from the Partnership on their new study - "While nearly 3 million teenagers in America have already tried the club drug Ecstasy, only one percent of parents believe their son or daughter is among them - and half of all parents are unclear about the effects of the so-called "love drug," according to a national survey released today..."  
  

Hill Group Faults HHS for Ideology
Washington Post story - "A dozen House Democrats have written to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson expressing concern that 'scientific decisionmaking is being subverted by ideology' on issues ranging from cancer policy to lead safety standards."  
  

Genetic research to target drug addiction
St. Petersburg Times story on a $5.85-million federal contract that will allow researchers at the Roskamp Institute and James A. Haley VA Medical Center at the University of South Florida to trace the effects of drug abuse on the body