"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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Walking the line between appropriately prescribing controlled substances and unwittingly contributing to the increase in prescription drug abuse becomes less precarious when certain precautions are taken, say those familiar with the balancing act.

Prescription drug abuse is widespread and on the rise. Nearly 7 million Americans abused prescription drugs in 2005, compared with 3.8 million in 2000 — an 80% jump, says the Justice Dept.

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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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A $10-million grant to the Canadian Center on Substance Abuse will support a national campaign to discourage illicit-drug use among 10- to 24-year-olds, the Canwest News Service? reported Jan. 31.

Canada’s new Drug Prevention Strategy for Youth (PDF) aims to reduce youth drug-use rates, delay the onset of use, reduce drug-use frequency, and cut the use of multiple substances among those who do take drugs. It is part of the conservative government’s National Anti-Drug Strategy released in the fall and will include a two-year media campaign.

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The federal Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) will be spending millions for a one-shot Super Bowl ad that warns against the dangers of prescription drug abuse, AdAge reported Jan. 24.

The ad features a drug dealer lamenting that business is off because so many teens are getting high on prescription drugs taken from parents’ medicine cabinets. It is part of a new 12-week, $14-million campaign focused not on teens, but their parents. “Teens don’t need a drug dealer to get high, safeguard your prescriptions,” says an announcer at the end of the Super Bowl ad. “Safeguard you teens.”

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The nonmedical use of prescription-type drugs continues to be a problem among 12th? grade students, according to data from the 2007 national Monitoring the Future survey.

Fifteen percent of 12th? graders reported the nonmedical use of at least one prescription medication within the past year. Narcotic drugs, such as OxyContin? and Vicodin, were the most prevalent (9.2%), followed by amphetamines (7.5%), sedatives (6.2%), and tranquilizers (6.2%).

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Massachusetts health officials have established a tracking system to monitor prescription of psychiatric drugs to children after the overdose death of a four-year-old girl, the Boston Globe reported Oct. 7.

In the first three months of the program, 35 cases of suspected overprescription of drugs have been uncovered. The state Medicaid program is analyzing records of prescriptions to 82,900 children under age 5; flagged cases include those where kids are receiving three or more psychiatric drugs or one powerful antipsychotic.

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President Bush today signed a comprehensive Food and Drug Administration bill that focuses on prescription drug safety reforms.  The bill holds the prescription drug industry more accountable for the safety of their products by requiring them to publicly disclose drug safety studies, even the ones that show their medicines in an unflattering light.  It also increases the budget for drug safety reviews at the Food and Drug Administration. 

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California bill will prod national decision makers, serve in lieu of federal policy if Congress fails to act

SACRAMENTO—The California Assembly Health Committee passed the Pharmaceutical Drug Information and Safety Act, SB 606 (Scott), today with all members present voting in favor of the bill. The measure will require pharmaceutical companies to disclose the results of clinical studies, meaning that doctors, patients, researchers and even industry competitors will gain access to information on the side effects and effectiveness of medicine currently on the market.

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By Bob Curley

Fewer adolescents are telling federal researchers that they use marijuana, but the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported that most indicators of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use remain relatively unchanged from 2005.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) unveiled the survey results on Sept. 6, with federal officials touting a 25-percent reported decline in marijuana use among male youths between 2002 and 2006 but fretting over the 2.2 million new nonmedical users of prescription drugs, including narcotic painkillers. Most users of prescription drugs for recreational reasons reported getting the drugs free from friends or family members.

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