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Alzheimer's Disease Affects 5 Million

About 5.1 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, according to a recent report from the Alzheimer's Association. While the vast majority of affected people are over 65 years of age, between 200,000 and 500,000 people younger than 65 years old have early-onset Alzheimer's or other dementias. Without improvement in treatment, the group estimated that the prevalence of the disease could reach 7.7 million by 2030 and between 11 million and 16 million by 2050. The price tag for Alzheimer's disease is also significant, according to the report. The direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer's disease add up to more than $148 billion each year. For Medicare, the cost of caring for patients with Alzheimer's and other dementias is expected to climb from $91 billion in 2005 to more than $189 billion by 2015. But Harry Johns, president and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association, was hopeful. “There are currently nine drugs in phase III clinical trials for Alzheimer's, several of which show great promise to slow or stop the progression of the disease,” Mr. Johns said in a statement.

NIH Examines Parkinson's Therapy

Officials at the National Institutes of Health have launched a large-scale phase III clinical trial to assess whether the nutritional supplement creatine is effective in slowing the progression of Parkinson's disease. Creatine has not been approved for the treatment of Parkinson's disease or any other condition. However, researchers have hypothesized that it could improve the function of mitochondria and by acting as an antioxidant prevent damage from compounds that harm brain cells. The study is placebo controlled and double blind and will include 1,720 individuals with early-stage Parkinson's disease. Half of the study participants will receive creatine and half will receive a placebo. Participants will be followed for 5–7 years. Both the supplement and the placebo will be provided by Avicena Group Inc. The study will be conducted at 51 medical centers in the United States and Canada.

Alzheimer's Treatment Delays

Race and ethnicity may play a role in delays in diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, according to the results of a survey released by the Alzheimer's Foundation of America. The survey found that 70% of African American and 67% of Hispanic caregivers were likely to dismiss the symptoms of Alzheimer's as old age, compared with 53% of caregivers of other races. The survey highlighted similar trends in knowledge of the disease. About 67% of African American caregivers and 63% of Hispanic caregivers said they did not know enough about the disease to recognize symptoms, compared with 49% of caregivers from other races. And African American caregivers were also more likely to report that stigma of the diagnosis affected their decision to obtain a diagnosis for a family member. For example, 36% of African American caregivers cited concerns about stigma as delaying diagnosis, compared with 22% of Hispanic caregivers and 18% of caregivers of other races. The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, included 655 adults who are currently caregivers for someone with Alzheimer's. The survey was sponsored by Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc.

NIH Launches Addiction Study

In response to the growing problem of prescription drug abuse, officials at the National Institutes of Health are launching the Prescription Opioid Addiction Treatment Study (POATS), a multisite study conducted under the direction of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The researchers will examine the effectiveness of buprenorphine/naloxone (Suboxone) combined with either intensive or brief drug-counseling approaches. Investigators aim to enroll about 648 participants at 11 sites. “Opioid analgesics were designed to help people in pain and we want to be sure that those who require them for legitimate reasons can continue to effectively manage their pain,” said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, who is director of NIDA, in a statement. “However, we must also recognize the risk of addiction to pain medications and develop treatments for those who become addicted to them. This trial is an important first step.”

CMS Extends Form Deadline

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has postponed the deadline for filing Medicare claims using its new version of claims form CMS-1500, because of formatting errors on the revised form, CMS announced. The original deadline for switching to the new form, known as CMS-1500 (08–05) originally was April 2. But CMS said last month that contractors have been directed to continue to accept the old form until the agency notifies them to stop. In addition, the agency advised physicians who must use the form to use legacy provider numbers as the form cannot accommodate a National Provider Identifier (NPI) number.

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