Friday, February 04, 2005

Guidelines Urge Wide Shift in Drug Treatment for the Mentally Ill Reuters Health story at Medscape - "Federal health officials on Monday called for a drastic shift in the treatment of mentally ill patients in the U.S., saying that too few are treated for dual diagnoses of mental illness and drug abuse. More than four million Americans who have a serious mental illness also have a severe drug abuse problem, according to figures released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Numbers are far higher for patients with less severe mental disorders."  
  

Study: Nearly One in Six Mentally Ill Homeless Reuters Health story at Yahoo - "A full 15 percent of Americans with serious mental illness are currently homeless, a much higher figure than suggested by previous research, a new study finds. The researchers, from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, urged more action to reduce this problem. They believe homelessness among those with serious mental illness could be reduced or prevented by providing individuals with substance abuse treatment and helping them obtain public-funded health benefits."  
  

HMOs May Lose Ability To Limit Medication Choice (California) Psychiatric News story - "Proposed regulations in California would give patients and physicians legal tools to ensure access to prescription drugs. Health care advocates are cautiously optimistic about proposed new regulations that would require California HMOs to cover medically necessary prescription drugs. Last month the California Department of Managed Health Care (CDMHC) issued the proposed regulations, which stipulate that prescription drug benefits be designed by 'qualified medical and pharmacy professionals.' If the regulations are finalized, the HMOs must establish and document a process for 'ongoing review by qualified medical and pharmacy professionals of the safety, efficacy, and utilization of outpatient prescription drugs.' "  
  

Is End Near for Popular Assessment Tool?  Psychiatric News story - "The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, a standard for decades, is seriously flawed and should be replaced with a scale built from the ground up, say Canadian researchers. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, and a long-reigning monarch of psychiatric measurement may well see pitchforks and torches approaching the castle walls. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale became the de facto gold standard for calibrating depression severity in the decades after its development by British psychiatrist Max Hamilton in 1960. Psychiatrists need a reliable tool to measure the effects of treatment in both the research lab and in the clinic, but many have questioned the utility of the Hamilton in recent years."  
  

Suicide Rate Down in the Era of Prozac Los Angeles Times story - "The U.S. suicide rate has fallen steadily since Prozac and related antidepressants came into use in the late 1980s, according to an analysis by researchers worried that evidence linking the drugs to suicide in children could reduce their use. The suicide rate, which reached a peak in 1988 of nearly 13 deaths per 100,000 people, fell steadily to about 10.5 in 2002. Most suicides are the result of untreated depression, not adverse reactions to antidepressants, wrote Dr. Julio Licinio and Dr. Ma-Li Wong, psychiatrists at UCLA, in an opinion piece released Wednesday by the journal Nature Reviews: Drug Discovery."  
  

Cautious response greets antidepressant warning Chicago Tribune story - "Doctors reacted with caution Thursday to a new study suggesting that pregnant women who take common antidepressants might cause their newborn babies to have seizures or other withdrawal symptoms. The study, published in the British journal The Lancet, provides a useful reminder that any drugs taken during pregnancy could harm the unborn child, experts said. But they quickly added that not treating serious cases of depression also carries risks, for both the patient and her baby."