Consensus on Treatments for Aggression in Youth
Article in the July Psychiatric Times - "One of the more difficult aspects of treating children and adolescents is the issue of aggression. An expert consensus panel convened by the Center for the Advancement of Children's Mental Health at Columbia University and the New York State Office of Mental Health has released a new set of treatment guidelines that should help physicians give the best care possible."  
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The Efficient Use of Pharmaceuticals: Does Europe Have Any Lessons for a Medicare Drug Benefit?
Health Affairs article at Medscape - "Managing drug use in a way that maximizes the value obtained from total health care spending faces obstacles; hence, payers and policymakers tend to look at pharmaceutical expenditures in isolation from the rest of health care spending. Currently there are both regulatory and putative market-based approaches to containing pharmaceutical spending worldwide. But evidence suggests that regulatory efforts in Europe and elsewhere have not proved effective in containing costs or improving efficiency or access, and supposedly market-based solutions now in vogue, such as reference pricing, pose their own set of challenges and may in practice violate market principles. In the end, silo-based budgeting is short-sighted; the emphasis in Europe and in the United States should be on measures that achieve efficient health care rather than the containment of drug spending." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
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Stopping Antidepressants for Bipolar Illness to Avoid Inducing Mania May Cause Depression Relapse
Medscape Medical News article - "After successful treatment of bipolar depression, guidelines recommend discontinuing antidepressant therapy to prevent inducing mania. However, results of a prospective comparison trial reported in the July issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry suggest that patients who discontinue treatment are no less likely to develop mania, but much more likely to relapse into depression, than those who continue antidepressant therapy." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
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Study identifies factors increasing risk of psychosocial problems among disabled children
Massachusetts General Hospital press release - "Whether or not children with disabilities experience psychosocial problems is associated with the type of disability and the impact of the disability on the child's family, a new study finds. The report from a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researcher and her colleagues found that children whose disabilities involve learning or communication impairments were significantly more likely to experience poor psychosocial adjustment. In addition, family stressors – such as poverty and the impact of the disability on the family – increased the risk of poor psychosocial adjustment. The study appears in the July 2003 issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine." Please note that the journal makes an abstract available free of charge, but that full text is only available for a fee (from the same page).  
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Problem Drinking Is Rarely Discussed During Medical Visits, More So During Psychiatric Visits
Story at InteliHealth based on research published in the July issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research which found that "despite heavy use of medical and mental-health services by problem and dependent drinkers, doctors and mental-health professionals often do not address alcohol consumption during visits."  
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Individual Treatment Gains Favor
Washington Post story on Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care, a program developed 20 years ago by Patricia Chamberlain, which is now spreading nationwide to 15 cities that have adopted her model for juveniles, many with the assistance of federal grants. The story focuses on Central Virginia Community Services, a government-chartered mental health agency in Lynchburg, and the application of the core principles of Chamberlain's program: instead of sending teens to group homes and residential treatment centers, "the 54-year-old clinical psychologist came up with a novel idea: Separate the children, put them with highly trained foster families and closely monitor them."  
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Commission for Health Improvement: NHS Star Ratings (UK)
The CHI is the independent regulator of NHS performance, and this web page indexes Performance ratings for NHS trusts in England, covering the year ending March 2003. These are the first ratings produced and published by CHI, and are the first set of ratings in which primary care trusts and mental health trusts have received full star ratings. See, especially, the overview of mental health trusts, the results (in the form of a table with links to summaries and reports for each trust rated) and the page indexing indicators and results for each indicator. See also the related BBC story, Row over NHS star ratings ("This year's NHS star ratings have sparked a furious row between the government, doctors and opposition MPs. Ministers say the ratings show that NHS services are improving across England. But doctors and opposition parties have dismissed the claim, saying the ratings are 'ludicrous', 'pathetic' and 'unfair.' ") and the Guardian story, Mental health campaigners attack grades ("Mental health campaigners have branded the NHS performance ratings as 'astonishingly unrealistic' for failing to reflect the poor standards of care experienced by many patients. The number of top rated mental health trusts has more than trebled, according to the latest health service league table.").  
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