Thursday, September 09, 2004

Recent FDA Actions on Warnings About Link Between Antidepressants, Suicidal Thoughts Examined
Item in yesterday's Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, based on reporting in the Wall Street Journal - "As a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee prepares to hold a hearing Thursday on antidepressants and disclosure issues, the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday examined FDA's actions in regard to warnings that Wyeth's Effexor may be linked to suicidal thoughts in children who take the antidepressant. Wyeth in August 2003 added such a warning to Effexor's label, but FDA requested that the drug maker remove the warning and replace it with a more general caution included on all major antidepressants urging physicians to monitor patients of all ages who take the drugs..."  
  

Industry's cost concerns stall mental health insurance bill
Story in The Oregonian - "Though Congress probably will vote this week on a suicide-prevention grant program named for the late son of Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., a far more sweeping plan to require insurers to cover mental illness remains stalled. Mental health advocates say they welcome passage of the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act. The bill authorizes $82 million to help states, tribes and colleges develop strategies to identify and treat youth at greatest risk of taking their own lives. Smith's grant program is a good start, mental health advocates say, but it doesn't address a greater threat to families of the mentally ill: losing their health insuranc.."  
  

Federal amendment would cut funding for mental health screening initiatives
Story in the Illinois Leader ("Illinois Conservative Politics")- "In an attempt to pull the power plug on the states’ ability to implement President Bush’s New Freedom Commission recommendations, Republican Congressman Ron Paul [Texas] is expected to offer an amendment that will prohibit funding for the creation or implementation of any new universal mental health screening programs to the Labor/Health and Human Services/Education appropriations bill, scheduled to be debated on the house floor today and Thursday. Conservatives and medical professionals have been alarmed at the unprecedented governmental intrusion of the NFC on mental health and what is perceived as pharmaceutical mining of America’s school children..."  
  

Psychiatrists condemn draft mental health bill (UK)
Article in The Guardian - "Psychiatrists last night condemned the government's latest attempt to reform mental health law in England and Wales as 'objectionable, unworkable and likely to bring NHS services to their knees'. They were responding to a draft bill from Rosie Winterton, health minister, setting out the biggest overhaul of mental health legislation since the 1950s. Ms Winterton had been trying for months to broker a compromise between the Home Office's desire to lock up all potentially violent psychopaths and the medical profession's view that mentally ill patients deserved the best possible care." See also Department of Health information on the new draft mental health bill, the story Government to unveil new mental health reforms and the Guardian's special section on mental health, the mental health law Q&A and the article on the voice of the consumer at the BBC, and the press release at Mind, New Mental Health Bill a missed opportunity.