"Health & Medical News"

From:
Treatment Research Institute
600 Public Ledger Building, 150 S. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel: (215) 399-0980
http://www.tresearch.org

Paying substance abuse treatment providers for results, not services, may lead to improved quality of care, according to the first published study of a novel performance-based contracting system implemented by the State of Delaware in 2002.

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Heath Ledger’s father and others are casting the death of the young actor as a warning about the dangers of prescription drug use.

Reacting to the New York medical examiner’s ruling that Ledger, 28, died of an accidental overdose of multiple painkillers and sedatives, the actor’s father, Kim Ledger, said, “While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy. Heath’s accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage.”

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Mexico’s war on drug cartels more resembles a military campaign than law enforcement, with federal troops taking on heavily armed traffickers, the New York Times reported Jan. 22.

Battles have included troops firing 50-caliber machine guns mounted on jeeps and Mexican Navy jets flying reconnaissance missions, with clashes in cities like Tijuana and Rio Bravo. Often, the fight pits the federal authorities against both the drug cartels and corrupt police. “You cannot count on the local police,” said one federal official in Reynosa. “The problem lies in the state police. They are completely at the service of these guys.”

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In the year after Major League Baseball banned the use of amphetamines, the number of players claiming they needed stimulant drugs to control attention-deficit disorder rose from 28 to 103, the New York Times reported Jan. 16.

During this week’s Congressional hearings on the use of performance-enchancing drugs in professional baseball, lawmakers questioned baseball commissioner Bud Selig over the rising use of drugs like Ritalin and Adderall between 2006 and 2007. Rep. John F. Tierney (D-Mass.), noted that use of such stimulants last year was about eight times higher among ballplayers than among the general public.

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Washington — Cancer patient Judith M. Layzer has come to the conclusion that the administrators of the Medicare drug benefit are forcing her to choose between her money and her life.

Layzer, a 66-year-old retired widow from New York, has a granulosa cell tumor, a rare form of ovarian cancer that no longer responds to the more traditional treatments for the condition. So for the past eight years, her doctor has had her on daily doses of Cetrotide (cetrorelix acetate), a drug that is normally used to prevent premature ovulation in women undergoing fertility treatments. She and her doctor are convinced that this off-label use of the drug has kept her alive.

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Q & A About Arthritis and Rheumatic Disease. Handout on Health: Rheumatoid Athritis … Rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy. New drugs or drug combinations …

Arthritis Today Magazine l Questions and Answers l Expert Advice l …
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If all currently illicit drugs were legalized only a relative handful of Americans would try drugs like cocaine or heroin, according to a Zogby poll sponsored by a drug-policy reform group.

A poll of about 1,000 likely voters ages 18 or older found that only 0.6 percent replied “yes” when asked, “If hard drugs such as heroin or cocaine were legalized, would you be likely to use them?” Ninety-nine percent answered “no,” and 0.4 percent said they were not sure.

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Hershey’s Ice Breakers Pacs — dissolvable pouches filled with mint-flavored powder — are being criticized by some law-enforcement officials who say the packaging resembles pouches of illicit cocaine and heroin, the Associated Press reported Nov. 30.

“Being in narcotics the majority of my career, I thought it was the real stuff,” said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector William Blackburn of the nickel-sized mints.

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Black and white Americans use illicit drugs at about the same rate, but blacks are 10 times more likely to be imprisoned on drug charges, according to research from the Justice Policy Institute.

Reuters reported Dec. 4 that the report found that the disparity persisted in most large counties in the U.S. Blacks, who represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, comprise about half of the 175,000 people jailed for drug offenses in 2002.

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Physicians may need to screen 12- to 18-year-olds for possible drug and alcohol abuse issues any time they present for care and not just at checkups, as recommended by many medical societies, including the American Medical Association. This concept was the take-home message of a study in the November Read the rest of this entry »