Thursday, June 09, 2005

Data on Drug Deaths in 32 Cities and Six States Released by SAMHSA SAMHSA press release - " The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration today unveiled findings on drug-related mortality from the 2003 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) that provide a picture of deaths involving recent drug use in six states and 32 metropolitan areas. Among the metropolitan areas, Baltimore and Albuquerque had the highest rates of drug misuse deaths, exceeding 200 deaths per one million population. Another 14 areas had drug misuse death rates that exceeded 100 deaths per one million population. Six states provided mortality data to DAWN - Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Utah and Vermont. Fatality rates for drug misuse in these states ranged from 88 to 162 deaths per one million population. This is the first time there has been any state information from DAWN. These data show substantial variations in drug-related deaths across jurisdictions within the states, with the highest rates not always found in urban centers."  
  

Bazelon Leadership 21"The Leadership 21 Initiative represents a new effort by the Bazelon Center to identify and engage the next generation of citizen-leaders to continue this important work to promote civil rights and human dignity for people with mental disabilities. The Center is seeking to develop a core committee of 12-15 of the most innovative and dynamic new leaders in the fields of mental disabilities, public policy, and legal advocacy to support and inform our work." See also the page of more information on this initiative.  
  

Court Says OxyContin Patent Is Invalid New York Times story - "A federal appeals court found yesterday that Purdue Pharma had deliberately misled the government to win patent protection for its powerful painkiller OxyContin. The ruling, which makes patents on the drug not enforceable, opens the door to increased generic competition, as well as potentially huge legal awards against Purdue. The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington is a victory for Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings, which is seeking to market a generic form of OxyContin." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Psychiatric Aspects of Parkinson's Disease Article in Current Opinion in Psychiatry at Medscape - "Many new studies of cognitive impairment and dementia in Parkinson's disease have been published during 2004. Cognitive impairment has been demonstrated even during the first 1–2 years after onset of disease. Whereas executive and attentional impairment is typical, learning deficits occur early in some patients. Both functional and structural imaging suggest that in addition to fronto-subcortical deficits, temporal and parietal changes occur early as well. In the first large placebo-controlled trial, the cholinesterase inhibitor rivastigmine improved cognition, daily functioning and psychiatric symptoms without worsening of parkinsonism. The frequency and characteristics of depression, anxiety and hallucinations have been explored in several studies. Unfortunately, there is still little scientific evidence available to guide the treatment of these important aspects of Parkinson's disease, and adequately designed clinical trials are needed." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Latest U.S. Mental Health Tracking Survey Shows Mixed Results Of Progress Another story, this one from Science Daily, on a set of four papers published in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry that have received a lot of publicity in the last week - "The conclusions of the latest U.S. mental health tracking survey show a continued high prevalence of mental disorders, but also show that most cases are mild and only a small proportion are severe, according to leaders of the survey from Harvard Medical School, University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, and the National Institute of Mental Health. The survey, known as the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), is taken every 10 years to assess the mental health of the country. In a set of four papers published in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, the survey authors reported that a majority of Americans will have a mental health disorder at some time in their life, but that most are mild; that those disorders often go untreated; and that even when treatment does occur, the care provided will likely not meet recommended mental health treatment guidelines for the disease"