APA Examining Industry Funding
The American Psychiatric Association is considering phasing out all pharmaceutical industry funding. But the move is not a reaction to a recent request from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for an accounting of how much drug industry money the APA receives, according to Rhondalee Dean-Royce, a spokeswoman for the association. The APA set up an Ad Hoc Workgroup on Adapting to Changes in Pharmaceutical Revenue in March; the work group's goal is to consider the impact if the APA decides to eliminate its industry support. In 2006, the latest year statistics are available, the APA received $18.3 million of its $62.5 million budget from drug companies, Ms. Dean-Royce said. She added that expenses related to those revenues totaled $14.6 million, leaving a “net gain of $3.7 million.” The work group will report to the APA board of trustees in the fall or early next year.
Teens' Easy Access to Rx Drugs
Nineteen percent of teens in a recent survey said it was easy to buy prescription drugs, while only 15% said it was easy to buy beer, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. This year's survey was CASA's 13th. Twenty-four percent said they had friends or classmates who abused prescription drugs; that number has held steady since 2003. A third of the teens said they got the prescriptions from friends or classmates and a third from home, parents, or the medicine cabinet. Half said that painkillers were the most commonly abused prescription drugs. Twenty-three percent said it was easier to buy marijuana than beer, with 42% of 12- to 17-year-olds reporting that they could buy pot in a day or less, and 23% in an hour or less. Drugs are the top concern for teens; 28% said it was the biggest problem they face. There was also a strong correlation between drug and alcohol use and staying out past 10 p.m.
SAMHSA Offers Methadone Help
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is developing a national network to provide clinical updates, evidence-based outcomes, and education to opioid addiction treatment centers, physicians, and other providers in the appropriate use of methadone. The agency is granting $1.5 million to the American Society of Addiction Medicine for training under a 3-year cooperative agreement. In a statement, SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline, Ph.D., said the most recent statistics indicate that methadone poisoning deaths have increased nearly fourfold from 786 deaths in 1999 to 3,849 deaths in 2004, and that they were on track to increase in 2005.
Home Drug Errors Rise
A shift in the number of medications being taken outside of the hospital has correlated with a sharp increase in the number of fatal medication errors in the home, researchers reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Sociologists at the University of California, San Diego, found a 3,196% increase in fatal domestic medication errors involving alcohol and/or street drugs, and a 564% increase in domestic medication fatalities not involving alcohol and/or street drugs. The study examined nearly 50 million U.S. death certificates from 1983 to 2004, and focused on the 200,000 deaths involving medication errors. “The decades-long shift in the location of medication consumption from clinical to domestic settings is linked to a dramatic increase in fatal medication errors,” the authors said. They noted that it may be possible to reduce fatal medication errors by focusing education efforts on domestic settings in addition to clinical settings.
Health Searches Level Off
The number of adults going online for health information has plateaued or declined, according to a Harris Interactive poll. A total of 150 million people–66% of all adults and 81% of those who have online access–said they obtained health information from the Internet in 2008. That represents a slight drop from 2007, when the poll found that 160 million people reported obtaining health information online. The researchers noted that the slight differences from 2007 to 2008 are within the possible sampling error. But they pointed out that, as opposed to other years, it appears that there has been no increase in the total number of people with Internet access or in the number of people searching for health information–those the poll calls “cybercondriacs”–indicating that a plateau or even a slight decline was underway. Just under half of cybercondriacs said that they had discussed the information they obtained online with their doctors, and 49% had gone online to look for information as a result of discussions with their doctors, the survey found.