Friday, October 03, 2003
NAMI Supports "Keeping Families Together"Act NAMI press release - "NAMI, the Nation’s Voice on Mental Illness, supports legislation being introduced today by U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Pete Stark (D-CA). The legislation addresses a scandal that has lingered too long in states throughout the nation—in which parents have been forced to give up custody of tens of thousands of children and adolescents with mental illnesses in order to secure necessary treatment. ..."
HHS Announces $7.7 Million to Help People Enter, Stay, In Substance Abuse Treatment SAMHSA press release - "Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced 13 cooperative agreements totaling $7.7 million over 3 years to improve client access to substance abuse treatment and retention in treatment. The awards are designed to help implement effective clinical and administrative practices that will encourage people to seek addiction treatment and remain in the full course of treatment."
Nearly Half of People Receiving Addiction Treatment Were Involved in Both Drug and Alcohol Abuse
SAMHSA press release - "Nearly half of all 1.1 million people receiving treatment for drug or alcohol addiction were in treatment for both drug and alcohol abuse according to the 2002 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services released today by HHS’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. ... 'This survey tells us where the substance abuse treatment system is going, to help us analyze system trends and forecast resource requirements,' said SAMHSA Administrator Charles G. Curie. 'At SAMHSA, building treatment capacity is a top priority. We are hopeful that the President’s Access to Recovery program will be funded to allow an additional 100,000 people to enter treatment and rebuild their lives.' ”
HHS awards $11.7 million to states to develop strategies to improve access to health insurance October 1 HHS press release - "HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced $11.7 million in grants to support projects in 30 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands to develop plans to provide affordable health insurance for uninsured residents. ... Grantees first conduct studies to identify uninsured residents and the reasons why they are uninsured. Then states use this information to determine the most effective ways to provide high-quality, affordable health insurance, using plans offered to government employees or other benchmark health plans as a model."
Optimizing Treatment for Patients with Schizophrenia: Targeting Positive Outcomes A new CME unit available through
Medscape (available in two different versions, one employing
Flash, one employing slides and
Real Audio), with six sections - The Science of Antipsychotics: Mechanistic Insight, Management of Acute Psychosis from Emergency to Stabilization, Beyond Control of Acute Exacerbation: Enhancing Affective and Cognitive Outcomes, Obesity, Diabetes, and Metabolic Syndrome: New Challenges in Antipsychotic Drug Therapy, Factors in Antipsychotic Drug Selection: Tolerability Considerations and Long-term Treatment Goals: Enhancing Healthy Outcomes. [Viewing
Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].
Research Breakthrough in Understanding Treatment-Resistant Depression (UK) Press release from the Clinical Neuroscience Research Centre reprinted at
Yahoo on research published in the latest in issue of
Biological Psychiatry - "Around 5 million people in the UK experience depression at any one time. Whilst a number of successful treatments, both pharmacological and psychotherapeutic, are available and many people make a full recovery about 30 - 40% of people are resistant to conventional therapies. For them their depression is an enduring, debilitating disease and for some, the only treatment options left include psychosurgery and ECT. Now an international team of researchers have discovered that brain activity differs significantly between healthy individuals and those suffering from treatment-resistant clinical depression. ... The study, the most significant to date to have investigated dysfunction in different parts of the brain in treatment-resistant depression, also heralds a new era in drug development. There are already benchmark drugs for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, but there is no equivalent treatment for treatment-resistant depression at the moment. This development in the understanding of the biological basis of treatment-resistant depression gives hope to scientists searching for a much-needed 'atypical' antidepressant."
