Depression No. 2 in Disability Days
Major depression accounts for the second-largest number of days lost to disability in the United States–387 million days per year at the population level, second only to back and neck pain, at 1.2 billion days–according to a study by Harvard University and National Institute of Mental Health researchers. The study was published in the October 2007 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. The researchers analyzed data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, a nationwide survey of 9,282 adults. Overall, half the adult population reported one or more physical or mental conditions that kept them from fully functioning. Individuals averaged 32 days of disability a year. Disability was lowest among students, who reported 17.9 individual days, and highest among the unemployed and disabled, at 121.4 days. The authors said their results “confirm those of several other studies in suggesting that individual-level effects of mental conditions are as large as those of most chronic physical conditions.”
Teens' Daily Substance Use High
A snapshot of adolescents across America on any given day finds that 1.2 million smoked, 631,000 drank alcohol, and 586,000 used marijuana, according to a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report. Another 50,000 used inhalants, 27,000 used hallucinogens, 13,000 used cocaine, and 3,800 used heroin. “A Day in the Life of American Adolescents: Substance Use Facts” draws data from SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, Treatment Episode Data Set and the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services. The report also finds that 76,000 adolescents were in outpatient treatment on an average day in 2005 and that 10,000 or more were in nonhospital residential treatment. “By breaking the data down and analyzing it on a day-to-day basis, we gain a fresh perspective on how deeply substance abuse pervades the lives of many young people and their families,” said SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline, in a statement.
Nicotine Linked to Other Teen Ills
The nicotine in tobacco products poses a significant danger of structural and chemical changes in developing brains that can make teens more vulnerable to alcohol and other drug addiction, as well as to mental illness, according to a new white paper from Columbia University. The paper, commissioned by former top federal health officials, found that teens who smoke are 9 times likelier to meet the medical criteria for past year alcohol abuse or dependence and 13 times likelier to meet the medical criteria for abuse and dependence on an illegal drug than teens who don't smoke. The analysis also found that among teens 12-17 years, twice as many smokers as nonsmokers suffered from symptoms of depression in the last year, and smoking at a young age is related to panic attacks, general anxiety disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder.
Lilly Warned on Cymbalta
A promotional brochure mailed to physicians on Cymbalta (duloxetine) delayed-release capsules overstates the drug's efficacy and “omits some of the most serious and important risk information associated with its use,” said the Food and Drug Administration in a late September warning letter sent to the drug's maker, Eli Lilly & Co. The agency questioned the references used to support the efficacy claims, and also said that even though the brochure included information from the boxed warning, it did not include contraindications in uncontrolled narrow-angle glaucoma and with monoamine oxidase inhibitors.
Change Proposed in Detox Rule
The Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing to allow group practices to prescribe drug addiction treatments to 30 or more patients. Each qualifying practitioner in a group could offer maintenance or detoxification treatment to 30 patients at one time. In some instances, qualifying physicians would be able to treat up to 100 patients at once. The proposed rule was published in the Sept. 20 Federal Register. Comments on the rule are due by Nov. 19.
Eating Disorders in Adolescents
Factors such as teasing by family, personal weight concerns, and dieting/unhealthy weight-control behaviors are strong and consistent predictors of overweight status, binge eating, and extreme weight-control behaviors later in adolescence, a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found. About 40% of overweight girls and 20% of overweight boys in the study engaged in either binge eating, extreme weight control, or both. The findings “suggest a need for decreasing weight-related pressures within an adolescent's social environment, decreasing weight concerns, and decreasing unhealthy weight control practices while promoting healthier alternatives,” the study's authors concluded.
Social Programs Eat Federal Funds