Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Cognitive Enhancement, Enriched Supportive Therapy Helpful in Schizophrenia
Medscape Medical News story - "Cognitive enhancement therapy is more beneficial than state-of-the-art enriched supportive therapy in reducing disability from schizophrenia, according to the results of a two-year randomized trial published in the September issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry." "emd"  
  

Patient Opinions on the Benefits of Treatment Programs
Aryicle in the September Canadian Journal of Psychiatry - "In recent years, patient needs and satisfaction with psychiatric care have been increasingly studied. This research has generated information that is useful for improving the quality of care and for implementing therapeutic programs based on evidence-based criteria and on patients’ subjective experiences. A relatively new research area is represented by studies exploring patient opinions on the benefits of treatment provided in both inpatient and outpatient services..."  
  

Controlling Health Care Costs
Article in the New England Journal of Medicine - "Every year, without fail, spending for services covered by private health insurance increases. Sometimes health care spending grows slowly, as it did in the mid-1990s during the managed-care boom. But more often, it increases rapidly, as it is doing now — in part because of the managed-care bust. Presidential candidates do not want to venture beyond platitudes concerning costs because they risk being accused of taking things away from people. Both President George W. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry have served up proposals designed to ease voters' angst about the affordability of health care, but neither proposal, as it has been elaborated through September, gets at the core issues involved in controlling the growth of health care costs. .."  
  

Cost, Stigma Are Barriers to Depression Treatment
Reuters Health story at Yahoo - "Some people with depression may refuse treatment because of the associated stigma, but the majority may go untreated simply because it is too expensive, according to the findings of an international study. ... Data from the United States and Western Europe suggest that improvements are needed in how depression is managed in the primary care setting, according to report published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. "