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Net Neutrality Regulation: Consequences for Investment and Consumer WelfareEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The American Consumer Institute has released a collection of essays addressing the likely consequences of ”‘Net Neutrality” regulation for investment in broadband and for consumer welfare. These are important things to consider, in case it needs saying. (Source: Cato-at-liberty)
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 20, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jim Harper Tags: Telecom, Internet & Information Policy American Consumer Institute FCC federal communications commission net neutrality Source Type: blogs

Breast Cancer Screening: Where The Rubber Meets The RoadEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force unleashed a tsunami this week with new breast cancer guidelines that are suspiciously timed to current efforts to rein in burgeoning healthcare costs. Indeed, the recommendations appear to be geared towards reducing overtreatment by eliminating what the Task Force considers unnecessary follow up screenings and tests. The recommendations even suggest the breast self-examination (BSE) should be discontinued. In essence, what the Task Force concluded was that while screening reduces deaths from breast cancer, it does not save enough lives to justify associated costs. To exacerbate the c...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - November 18, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Health Reform Insurance Women's Health American Cancer Society breast cancer Congress doctors health care costs mammography new york times US Preventive Services Task Force Source Type: blogs

Army Suicides In 2009 to Top 2008Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
One of the most consistently discouraging and gut-wrenching topics I write about on this site is suicide among active duty personnel in the US Army and today the news is awful. That's because yesterday the Army announced that active-duty suicides had hit 140 deaths for 2009, matching last year's total with six weeks left in the year. What's more, another 71 soldiers committed suicide after being taken off active duty. Like I said, discouraging. That this is likely mostly going on amongst non-commissioned personnel who are probably fairly young is doubly upsetting. I think we all know that the active duty military--especi...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 18, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Reasons To Be Skeptical Of "Female Viagra" Drug, Big Pharma's Spanish FlyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
So yesterday results of a study of a drug called Flibanserin (its generic name) were rolled out at a conference in France. Flibanserin was designed as an anti-depressant, but failed its trials except in one key sense: female patients were reluctant to return the study drug at trial's end because they'd had a low libido pre-trial and experienced heightened libido while on the drug, which is made by a Germany pharma company called Boehringer Ingelheim. Since the company has run several phase 2 and phase 3 trials of the drug to treated so-called hypoactive sexual desire disorder or HSDD. Anyhow one study of the drug got a to...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 18, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

The Psychology of TerrorismEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Terrorism is not a particularly new problem — it’s been a part of the world since civilization first organized. Despite how old it is, what we know about terrorist motivations and psychology is fairly limited. There isn’t a whole lot of empirical, scientific research on this topic (although there is an abundance of theory and anecdotal reports). But luckily, psychologists are slowly changing that, according to an article in the American Psychological Association’s monthly magazine, Monitor on Psychology. One researcher, John Horgan PhD at Pennsylvania State University, found that people who are more...
Source: World of Psychology - November 17, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: John M Grohol PsyD Tags: Brain and Behavior General Psychology Abundance American Psychological Association Anecdotal Reports Camaraderie Comrades First Victim Glamorous Lifestyle John Horgan Limited Motivations Pennsylvania State University Phd Poin Source Type: blogs

100 Researchers Ask NIH To Fund Ethics ResearchEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Dozens of researchers, clinicians, and ethicists sent a letter asking the NIH to fund research on medical ethics, conflicts of interest, and industry influence on prescribing behavior. Why? They note that stimulus funding has increased the NIH budget significantly, but the agency has “no mechanism for funding research on how commercial interests affect the choice of medical therapeutics.” In their Nov. 17 letter, they write NIH director Francis Collins that the “NIH funds a substantial portion of the generation and dissemination of evidence, but the uptake of that evidence and its translation into clinica...
Source: Pharmalot - November 17, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized American Medical Student Associatinon Center for Science in the Public Interest Conflicts of Interest Consumers Union Ethics Francis Collins Jerome Kassirer Jerry Avorn Kay Dickersin National Institutes of Health Nation Source Type: blogs

The State of the American WomanEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Image by of Kris Timken/Corbis About a month ago, Time Magazine published the results of a landmark survey gauging where America stands on the battle of the sexes. The results show that women are much more powerful than they were 40 years ago. In the 60s, one-third of all workers were woman. Now half are. Almost 40 percent of women are the primary breadwinners or are contributing substantial income for the household budget. And according to a Mediamark Research & Intelligence survey, women make 75 percent of the buying decisions in the home. You know the telemarketer who asked for the decision-maker of the house? Appar...
Source: World of Psychology - November 16, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Therese J. Borchard Tags: Brain and Behavior General Industrial and Workplace Men's Issues Mental Health and Wellness Parenting Personal Psychology Relationships Research Sexuality Stress Women's Issues Academic World American Woman Battle Of The Sexe Source Type: blogs

"Heart of Diabetes" Vlog #2Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
As a follow-up to this video, I recognize that some in the type 2 diabetes community do not believe that lipid panel results are that important; instead being in favor of glucose control, c-reactive protein, and expensive heart scans. Nothing is certain to determine heart disease risk, so I'm not willing to leave out any possible tool, including lipid panel results. ***In the interest of disclosure, I did receive compensation for travel, meals, and lodging. I will also be receiving an honorarium along with a Flip video camera (to record that Real Story) from the American Heart Association for my part in ...
Source: Diabetes Daily - November 16, 2009 Category: Diabetes Tags: american heart association heart disease type 2 Source Type: blogs

House Bill Wants Pharma To Disclose CME FundingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The health care reform bill passed by the House would force drugmakers to disclose how much they spend on continuing medical education classes for docs, although the Senate version doesn’t include such a requirement, according to The Wall Street Journal. The paper notes this comes as for-profit CME firms experience falling revenue. The Senate’s Special Committee on Aging, meanwhile, is investigating industry-funded CME, the Journal continues, and John Kamp, who heads the Coalition for Healthcare Communication, wrote Kohl the committee “should consider elimination of certified CME reporting in all version...
Source: Pharmalot - November 13, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized ACCME Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education American Association of Advertising Agencies Coalition for Healthcare Communication GlaxoSmithKline Pfizer Source Type: blogs

Fort Hood Shooting: Was Psychiatrist-Shooter Psychotic Or A Terrorist?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
NPR did some excellent reporting on Wednesday, which I didn't have the stomach to write about yesterday (I needed a day away from the Fort Hood story), but some officials at Walter Reed Hospital and elsewhere in the area were concerned that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan may have been "psychotic" or "schizoid." No one had any strong evidence of it aside from one official who is quoted as saying: "'Put it this way,' says one official familiar with the conversations that took place. 'Everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your foxhole.'" Nonetheless, it sounds as if Maj. ...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 13, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

More on ‘Race to the Top’Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Andrew Coulson has already touched on this, but I thought I’d throw in my two cents. “Race to the Top Fund” guidelines were released today and they should please no reformers. They are simultaneously too weak, and way too much. They are too weak because they don’t require states to actually do anything of substance. Have plans for reform? Sure. Break down a few barriers that could stand in the way of decent changes? That’s in there, too. But that’s about it. And the money is supposed to be a one-shot deal – once paper promises are accepted and the dough delivered, the race is supposed to be ove...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 12, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Neal McCluskey Tags: Education and Child Policy american education bureaucrat bureaucrats cato centralization college graduation federal money liberty parents race to the top reformers school state budget students taxpayer taxpayers Source Type: blogs

Tom Sullivan, of ACRE Fame, Is Swimming in Drug Company CashEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Wherever there is a vocal battalion of defenders of drug industry funded medical education, you are certain to find Tom Sullivan leading the charge. Sullivan writes the most prolific pro-industry CME website, Policy and Medicine. He is a founding member of ACRE, and managed all the logistics for ACRE's first embarrassing meeting, held at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He collaborates closely with John Kamp, director of the pro-commercial CME front group, Coalition for Healthcare Communication. Simply put, Tom Sullivan loves pharma funding of medical education, and he simply can't get enough of it. W...
Source: The Carlat Psychiatry Blog - November 12, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Tags: ACRE Tom Sullivan industry-funded CME Novartis American Society of Hypertension Source Type: blogs

11 Kinds of Therapy to Help You Grieve a LossEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Many readers are grieving loved ones, and the grief certainly contributes to their depression. A fantastic book I just came across is Solace: Finding Your Way Through Grief and Learning to Live Again by Roberta Temes, Ph.D., a noted psychotherapist and the author of “Living with an Empty Chair” and “The Tapping Cure.” I have reprinted with permission of her publisher 11 ways kinds of therapies, or activities, to help you grieve a loss. What can you do to feel better? Sometimes you need to take action. When you do something to relieve your feelings and to give yourself a sense of achievement, you are...
Source: World of Psychology - November 10, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Therese J. Borchard Tags: Grief and Loss Personal Psychotherapy Relationships Amacom Books American Management Association Belongings Bereavement Depression Desk Desk Drawer Empty Chair Feelings Fellow Workers Job Journey Lunch Many People Nbsp Source Type: blogs

Our ‘Reassured’ AlliesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Justin Logan beat me to the punch, but Robert Kagan and Dan Blumenthal’s op-ed in the Washington Post warrants more than just one comment. Kagan and Blumenthal fret that the Obama administration’s policy of “strategic reassurance” is sure to fail. Aimed at encouraging Russia and China, especially, to cooperate with the United States in dealing with a number of common threats, the two predict that the policy will succeed only in making “American allies nervous.” Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Not that we should go around making our allies nervous just for the heck of it...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 10, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Christopher Preble Tags: Foreign Policy and National Security General Afghanistan american military american taxpayers blumenthal China defense global peace justin logan medical expenses obama robert kagan Russian south koreans war war in afghanist Source Type: blogs

Whytorin? Merck Cholesterol Pills Face Another TestEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The big drugmaker may encounter its third negative study result within two years for Vytorin and Zetia which, along with Zocor, is a component in the expensive cholesterol pill. The latest trial is scheduled to be presented this coming Monday at the American Heart Association meeting, and pits Merck’s drugs against Abbott Labs’ Niaspan, Bloomberg News notes. The results are likely to show that Niaspan unclogged arteries better than Vytorin, according to Leerink Swann analyst Seamus Fernandez and Wells Fargo Advisors analyst Larry Biegelsen, Bloomberg writes. If so, Vytorin and Zetia revenue may be reduced by $800 ...
Source: Pharmalot - November 10, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Abbott Laboratories American Heart Association Cholesterol Enhance Merck Niaspan Schering Plough Steve Nissen Vytorin Zetia Zocor Source Type: blogs

Famous Diabetes Friends on Heart Health (Vlogs)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Ooh, lucky me. I ran into two of my diabetes heroes at the Diabetes Technology Society Meeting late last week. More soon on the new developments I heard about there. But for today, please enjoy these video testimonials on diabetes & heart health. First, from Francine Kaufman, MD, a world-renown pediatric endocrinologist at USC, former ADA president, [...] (Source: Diabetes Mine)
Source: Diabetes Mine - November 10, 2009 Category: Diabetes Authors: AmyT Tags: Miscellaneous american heart association diabetes diabetes blogs diabetes heart health diabetes videos diabetic diabetic cyclists Dr. Francine Kaufman heart attack Phil Southerland stroke Team Type 1 Team Type 2 Source Type: blogs

Fort Hood Shooting: Psychiatrist-Shooter A Domestic TerroristEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I'll just take a deep breath here because I wasn't far wrong when I opined yesterday that this story was bound to get uglier: the alleged shooter at Fort Hood, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is a terrorist, domestic terrorist even. The AP reports: "The officials also say Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan communicated 10 to 20 times with a radical imam overseas who in the past came under scrutiny for possible links to terror groups. They say the communications began last year and continued into this year between Hasan and the imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, and that U.S. officials had been aware of them since last year." So much for the PTSD-victim...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 10, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

In Which I Coin The Term "Nemeroffian"Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I got to thinking over the weekend that the well-known conflicts of interest and dubious science of Charles Nemeroff--late of Emory University, soon of the University of Miami--deserve their own adjective, one that could be used to describe others in academic psychiatry who transgress similarly in the future. And so I have coined the term "Nemeroffian" to describe excesses and "science pimping" on a scale that Nemeroff himself can only achieve. (My Nemeroff back catalogue is here for those who wonder what I mean.) Howard Brody at the Hooked blog had some thoughts on Nemeroff getting a job as chair of the psychiatry depart...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 9, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Orlando Shooter Shouldn't Have Had A GunEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
News is out that the alleged shooter in Friday's tragedy in Orlando, Florida has a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Jason Rodriguez allegedly killed one man and wounded five others when he shot up the offices of his former employer. The man who died was 26 years old and had a young child. Lovely. I feel for all the victims of this crime. The big question to me in all of this is why did Rodriguez have a gun. "Mr. Rodriguez periodically took medication for what his former mother-in-law, America Holloway, said was schizophrenia. When he was not taking the medication, Ms. Holloway said, he was unbearable to live with — angry, j...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 9, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Fort Hood Shooting: Psychiatrist Calls Psychiatrist-Shooter "Terrorist"Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
And that psychiatrist is none other than Peter Breggin writing on the Huffington Post. "Before I begin to look at his role as a psychiatrist, I want to confirm that Major Nidal Malik Hasan was driven by religious ideology. For years he openly claimed that the War on Terror is a war on Muslims. He announced on the Internet and to his fellow soldiers in a course on public health that a Muslim suicide bomber should be praised for killing a hundred soldiers. It's reported that fellow soldiers warned his superiors that he was a ticking time bomb. "One wonders how and why the army failed to relieve him from active duty. One ri...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 9, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Do You Know Diabetes?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I keep thinking about the Heart of Diabetes initiative that the American Heart Association has been working on. The more I think about it, the more I believe in what they are doing. This is a large national nonprofit organization working very hard to help better overall heart health. You might think "why is that important here, at diabetesdaily.com?" - and it is a fair question! It is important because the statistics around diabetes and heart disease are scary. Yet many of us don't really think much about heart health. I know I don't give it as much thought as I do the other scary compli...
Source: Diabetes Daily - November 8, 2009 Category: Diabetes Tags: American Heart Association Heart of Diabetes iknowdiabetes.org Source Type: blogs

US Health Care, The Best in the World???Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
For many Americans there is an unfortunate notion that our health care is the best in the world, so, when I recently read an article entitled "The Epidemic of Medical Child Abuse, and what can be done", I had to share some statements and comment. Just read the first statement from author, Dana Ullman: The primary purpose of this article is to encourage a stronger commitment from doctors and parents to consider using safer medical care for infants and children FIRST before resorting to more dangerous treatments. I absolutely agree with this statement. It's not to say that there are not medical treatments which are neces...
Source: Liddle Kidz Infant and Pediatric Massage Blog - November 7, 2009 Category: Pediatricians Tags: Homeopathy Child Abuse Living Homeopathic Remedies Integrative Medicine Pediatrics Health Care Reform Evidence-Based Medicine Medical Child Abuse American Academy Of Pediatrics Source Type: blogs

Fort Hood Shooting: Army Psychiatrist Kills 12, Wounds 31, Fuller Torrey SilentEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
With all due respect to the profession of psychiatry, I need to ask why the "world's most famous psychiatrist," E. Fuller Torrey, and his group the Treatment Advocacy Center are so far completely silent on the tragedy at Fort Hood, Texas. That's where an Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, shot up an Army building, killing 12 and wounding 31 before being captured. Maj. Hasan was wounded and is reportedly in the custody of the Army at a hospital. Often, when a person in the mental health system loses it (for whatever reason) and commits violence, Torrey and the fine folks at TAC are quick to post (anonymously, of co...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 6, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Bye Bye Asperger’s Syndrome?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Is the diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome — a mild form of autism mostly diagnosed in boys — heading the way of the dodo bird? A new article in the New York Times suggests that the new revision of the diagnostic manual — the DSM-V — is likely to do away with the diagnosis. How can you just delete an entire diagnosis and do away with a diagnostic label that hundreds of thousands of clinicians use everyday and millions identify with? If you’re the American Psychiatric Association, the folks behind the latest DSM revision, you can pretty much do anything you want. Before I get to Asperger...
Source: World of Psychology - November 5, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: John M Grohol PsyD Tags: Autism Brain and Behavior Children and Teens Disorders General Health-related Mental Health and Wellness Parenting Policy and Advocacy Psychology American Psychiatric Association Asperger S Syndrome Asperger Syndrome Attention De Source Type: blogs

It's Official: Nemeroff To MiamiEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
News is just out that, as expected, the controversial former Emory University psychiatry department chair Charles Nemeroff has been named chair of the psychiatry department at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Nemeroff is infamous for epic conflict of interest issues and dubious research findings. I'd say Miami U. and Nemeroff are made for each other as the university has the dirtiest, most thuggerific football team in NCAA football. The Miami Herald reports: "On Thursday, Pascal Goldschmidt, dean of UM medical school, called Nemeroff 'an extraordinary psychiatrist and scientist. . . . He got into serious troub...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 5, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Pristiq Ad Among Most Recalled On TVEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Or so says Nielsen Research. The most-recalled ad was the ubiquitous Flomax ad, followed by ads for Cialis and Gardasil in a tie for second. Remarkably, Pristiq was next with its creepy wind-up doll ad. I say remarkably because there are so many ads for so many drugs, medical devices and procedures on TV that it boggles the mind and it's got to be hard for some of them to creep into the collective consciousness much less long-term memory. Not that Pristiq is selling particularly well. For those of you who are troubled by DTC pharma ads, especially on TV, I'm with you. But we're stuck with them. They bring in so many billi...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 5, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Æterna Zentaris’ LHRH-Receptor Targeted Therapy AEZS-108 Produces Positive Preliminary Results in Advanced Stage Ovarian CancerEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Preliminary Phase II clinical study evaluation shows that primary efficacy endpoint has been met for patients with advanced-stage, platinum-resistant, taxane-pretreated ovarian cancer who were treated with the targeted therapy AEZS-108. Æterna Zentaris Inc. , a global biopharmaceutical company focused on endocrine therapy and oncology, today announced positive efficacy data from a Phase II study with its [...] (Source: Libby's H*O*P*E*)
Source: Libby's H*O*P*E* - November 4, 2009 Category: Cancer Authors: Paul Cacciatore Tags: Biological Therapies Chemotherapy Clinical Trial Results Novel Therapies Pipeline Drugs AEterna Zentaris AEZS-108 AGO-GYN5 American Society of Clinical Oncology AN-152 cytotoxic peptide conjugate doxorubicin endometrial cancer Gu Source Type: blogs

Back to Basics: Toward a Core Set of Relevant and Portable Personal Health InformationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In the cacophony of health IT issues, products, and goals that compete every day for our attention, it is easy to lose sight of the profound value that could come from the universal availability of a simple core set of relevant and portable personal health information in digital format. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog)
Source: Healthcare IT News Blog - November 4, 2009 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: David Kibbe Tags: allergies American Academy diabetes Google HTML Industry News Microsoft XML Source Type: blogs

Kids Non-Profit Head Slams Overmedicating Of KidsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An interesting column appeared today in the Schenectady Daily Gazette. It's a rant about medicating kids and is written by the executive director of QUEST, a non-profit for kids, in upstate New York. She walks through a few real world examples of doped-up kids and then lowers the boom. "Since when have we become a nation of super-conformists, fitting all children into slots and molds, killing initiative, uniqueness and creativity? The Beatles wrote a song about taking a "little white pill" to get through the day, but that song was about a suburban housewife, not a child. "We scream about kids smoking an 'L' or taking Ecs...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 4, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Patents On Genes Can Be Challenged, Court RulesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A federal district court ruled today that patients and scientists can challenge patents on human genes in court. And the move allows a lawsuit challenging patents on two human genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer to move forward, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), which filed the suit. In a statement, the groups say the filed their suit because the patents are “illegal and restrict both scientific research and patients’ access to medical care.” They also charge that patents on human genes violate the First Amendment and patent l...
Source: Pharmalot - November 3, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized ACLU American Civil Liberties Union BRCA Breast Cancer Genes Myriad Genetics Patents Public Patent Foundation Source Type: blogs

Newsweek Column Argues For Upside To DepressionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A column in Newsweek, penned by science editor Sharon Begley, argues for an upside to depression, driven by evolutionary psychology considerations and what she considers evidence of the all-powerful 5HT1A receptor. "Human brains are not the only ones with the 5HT1A receptor. Rats also have it. "Here's the really interesting part: the rat version is 99 percent identical to the human one. This suggests that in the evolution from the shared ancestor of rats and people (hold those creationism letters!), natural selection did not mess with the receptor much. That leave-well-enough-alone history tends to happen when the functi...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 3, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Study: Depression's Link To Processed FoodEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This may strike some readers as "Duh," but British and French researchers report in this month's British Journal of Psychiatry that a long-term study of diets and depression in some 3,500 Brits found more depression in those who ate a diet high in processed foods. Those who ate a diet stronger in "whole" foods--fruits, veggies, fish--saw a 26 percent less chance of depression than did those who ate the most processed foods (meats, cheeses, desserts) and fried foods. Conversely, the high-processed foods group had a 58 percent higher risk of depression than did the whole foods group. (A BBC account of the study is here.) Co...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 3, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Countdown to World Diabetes Day: Get Ready for the Big Blue TestEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Hope you all had a fun Halloween weekend. Somehow the conclusion of that sugar-fest seems a great segue into National Diabetes Awareness Month, no? And the countdown begins to World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14, 2009. Where to begin describing all the activities planned around the web and around the world to “bring diabetes [...] (Source: Diabetes Mine)
Source: Diabetes Mine - November 2, 2009 Category: Diabetes Authors: AmyT Tags: D-News Examined Diabetes Blogs and Web Stuff ADA American Diabetes Association Big Blue Test blood sugar blood sugar test diabetes advocacy diabetes.org diabetic glucose monitoring IDF JDRF National Diabetes Awareness Month WDD Source Type: blogs

Medication Adherence Requires a Team-based ApproachEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
As our population ages the importance of one’s ability to remain independent as long as possible will become even more important than it is today. One of the leading causes for the placement of a frail adult in a nursing home is due to non-adherence to medication regimes. In fact, 10 to 25 percent of hospital and nursing home admissions annually are because of an individual’s lack of adherence. The American Academy of Nursing working with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has published practice guidelines for nurses working with the older adults in the community on the management of their medication. There...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - November 2, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Drug Adherence Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality American Academy of Nursing medication adherence Nursing home Source Type: blogs

Women And Post-Combat PTSDEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Much as with men, the women seeing active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan are seeing loads of post-combat PTSD, according to the New York Times. "Never before has this country seen so many women paralyzed by the psychological scars of combat. As of June 2008, 19,084 female veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan had received diagnoses of mental disorders from the Department of Veterans Affairs, including 8,454 women with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress — and this number does not include troops still enlisted, or those who have never used the V.A. system." I appreciate their service and wish them well. While I'm wishing, I wi...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 2, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

House Health Care Bill Contains End-Of-Life CounselingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The AP reported last night that the House health care reform bill indeed contains provisions for end-of-life counseling, which generated so much controversy over the summer when it was included in earlier version of the bill. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin dubbed this counseling "death panels"--a bit of an overstatement I think--and it was off to the races. I figured the Democrats were smart enough to strip these provisions out of the House bill, but no. The reality is the counseling likely wouldn't make its way into an eventual combined House-Senate bill because over in the more adult chamber the Dems are struggling ...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 30, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

House Health Care Bill Contains MOTHERS ActEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The House health care reform bill rolled out yesterday contains most of the language and provisions of the long-stalled, much-controversial MOTHERS Act. Go to page 1418 of the bill, downloadable here, for the language. An earlier version of the MOTHERS act is here. Minus the original bill's prologue about depression in new moms, much of the Act's provisions are in the House bill, but with slightly softened language. Postpartum depression screening is no longer, in essence, mandatory but is now something that "may" be included in a national education campaign for health professionals and the public. The bill also calls for...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 30, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

House Health Care Bill Pushes Mental Health Promotion, Nanny State In WorkplaceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There are many references to mental health in the House health care reform bill, 110 to be exact. Most of them use the term generically in reference to facilities and health care providers, but not so when it comes to "wellness program grants." (The language begins on page 62 of the bill, downloadable here.) These wellness grants appear to be--as best as I can understand the bill--aimed at smaller businesses and would allow for a 50 percent grant of wellness plan expenses (presumably from a private plan) but only if said wellness program and said businesses institute a Nanny State program that goes far beyond the usual "sm...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 30, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Ask Consumers if They Like a Weak DollarEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
According to a Washington Post story today, “the weak dollar is one problem the United States loves to have.” The story reports how the fall of the dollar against the euro and other currencies in the past year has boosted U.S. exports and discouraged imports, cutting the trade deficit and allegedly boosting the U.S. economy. A weaker dollar has spurred complaints in Europe and elsewhere, but here at home the Post story leaves the impression the approval is practically unanimous. Nowhere in the 1,058-word story is the impact on consumers ever mentioned. But it is American consumers who pay the biggest price when the dol...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 29, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Daniel Griswold Tags: International Economics and Development Trade and Immigration american families consumer consumers currencies dollar economy exports higher prices households imports trade deficit Source Type: blogs

Medication Adherence and Medicare’s Part D Prescription Drug ProgramEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Mary R. Grealy is president of the Healthcare Leadership Council, a coalition of chief executives of the nation’s leading health care companies and organizations. She is also the author of Prognosis: A Healthcare Blog which explores the nexus at which healthcare policy meets healthcare practice. If only it were an urban legend that senior citizens in the United States were cutting their physician-prescribed pills in half or ignoring their medications altogether in order to have enough money for food and utilities, but one doesn’t need academic studies to know that this kind of economically-forced non-adherence has ...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - October 29, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Drug Adherence Congress Healthcare Leadership Council Journal of the American Medical Association KRC Research Medicare Modernization Act Medicare Tdayo medications Part D senior citizens United States Source Type: blogs

House Health Care Bill Mandates Calorie Counts At Restaurants NationallyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier today rolled out the House's version of health care reform. The bill is a 1,990 page whopper, downloadable here. I've been able to poke through it a bit and, beginning at page 1,510, I encountered something that will embiggen the hearts of public health advocates (and frankly the whole bill is a gigantic wet kiss to the public health crowd) and make haters of the Nanny State say, "Told you so." The House bill mandates for calorie counts of almost any item served at a restaurant (or similar food establishment) owned by a company with 20 or more restaurants in the US as well as on drive-th...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 29, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

House Health Care Bill Mandates Study Of Mental Health Outcomes of Abortion, AdoptionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study may assess the incidence, timing, magnitude, and duration of the immediate and long-term mental health consequences (positive or negative) of these pregnancy outcomes." I have no idea why this is included in a bill that's supposed to reform our health care system--for good or ill. Maybe I'm missing something. The bill requires NIMH to report back to Congress on study progress and findings within three years. Of course, the relative psychological impacts of abortion are some of the most heated aspects of the abortion debate. Pro-lifers often claim that women who undergo abortions often end up depressed while pr...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 29, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Pristiq Ad Runs During World Series As Adverse Events Reports MountEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Yes, that creepy ad for Pristiq with the woman staring at the wind-up doll has been running again during the ALCS and NLCS and now during game one of the World Series last night (won by the Phillies 6-1 over the Yanks with a big assist from former Mariner Raul Ibanez). It's bad enough having to sit through Cialis and Viagra ads during the Fall Classic, but anti-depressant ads, too? Hand me a beer instead. You see the ad here. Meanwhile, adverse events for the Son of Effexor continue to mount and stand at 1,361 adverse events reports in the FDA's database. That's good going for a drug that's been on the market two-plus yea...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 29, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Weirdest Comment Ever On This SiteEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
And thus well worth highlighting since it comes in response to the JAMA study which found that antipsychotics are putting tons of fat on youngsters. "I think this report smells fishy. Smells like the work of anti-psychiatry Scientologists. Psychiatric medications are a healthy part of a balanced lifestyle for the majority of children with childhood bipolar disease, a serious but treatable medical condition. "My child has bipolar disorder and I've come to learn that her rages have nothing to do with me and that this is a highly genetic biological brain-based disorder. "We have her on eight meds prescribed by the director...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 28, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

AP Reports Health Insurance Company Profits Not Very HighEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I'm sure most of you are aware that health insurance companies have been just about every Democrats favorite whipping boy in the ongoing health care reform debate. Their profits are obscene and so on goes the rhetorical line out there and the companies are allegedly the cause of the explosion in health care costs in America. Well, a reporter at the AP went and did some checking and it turns out, according to the AP that across the health insurance industry profit margins are nowhere near the 25 percent some people claim. "Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's an...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 27, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

The Cruelty of ChildrenEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The always outstanding and very situationist This American Life, has a terrific episode on the “The Cruelty of Children” that relates closely to yesterday’s post and makes excellent weekend listening. You can listen to the episode here and download the podcast here. Here’s the program description. * * * Stories about kids being mean to each other. Prologue.Bully Book. A first-grader explains to host Ira Glass how bullies become bullies. His explanation: They read a book on how to be a bully. According to his reasoning, how else could you explain why kids are mean to each other? It couldn’t...
Source: The Situationist - October 26, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: The Situationist Staff Tags: Abstracts Conflict Education Life Podcasts bullying This American Life David Sedaris Source Type: blogs

NPR Does It AgainEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
NPR's "Morning Edition" today had yet another installment on what it's essentially declaring a mental health crisis on college campuses. Based on what I know not. Today's show again focuses on Stanford University. I really cannot force myself to summarize the piece's contents. Listen to it or read it here and let me know what you think in comments. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - October 26, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

Glenn Close Tackles Mental IllnessEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
“Mental illness is just part of the human condition,” Glenn Close said Oct. 21 on “Good Morning America.” Halleluia! A Hollywood response to all the scientology. Today Close spoke out for the first time on television about the legacy of mental illness in her own family: Her sister, Jessie, suffers from bipolar disorder, and Jessie’s son has schizo-affective disorder. Glenn has launched a nonprofit organization called BringChange2Mind, which she hopes will raise awareness about mental illness, strip mood disorders like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia from their unfair stigma, and lend suppor...
Source: World of Psychology - October 24, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Therese J. Borchard Tags: Anxiety and Panic Bipolar Depression Disorders General Mental Health and Wellness Minding the Media Personal Personality Policy and Advocacy Relationships Schizophrenia Treatment Abc News Affective Disorder American Adults Source Type: blogs

Pill Crazy, Mike Royko's Son Gets 30 Months For Bank RobberyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Rob Royko, son of the famous late Chicago columnist Mike Royko, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for an attempted bank robbery in 2005. What's significant about this case (other than the son of a famous father gone wrong theme) is that Rob had problems with drugs and drink for years, was diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder, suddenly began taking a ton of pills (including Zyprexa, Depakote, Valium and Vicodin) and, in his 50s, committed his first crime--trying to rob a bank. He claims he was taking over 600 pills a month right before he attempted to knock over a bank, an amount that would surely drive...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 20, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs

NPR's Biased Reporting On Mental HealthEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I was very discouraged by a piece that aired on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" on Monday. It was another example of lazy, unquestioning reporting of mental health issues by a mainstream media outlet. The fact that it aired on "Morning Edition" is important because the show is one of the most popular on all of radio with an estimated 13 million listeners a week (that puts it just behind Limbaugh and Hannity, although Arbitron recently changed how it measures ratings so some of this may have changed). The news hook for the story was the mental disorder diagnoses are way up among college students and that a group ...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 20, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: American Culture Source Type: blogs