Behavioral Couples Therapy for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
April 1st 1999Nearly 25 years ago, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism hailed couple and family therapy as "one of the most outstanding current advances in the area of psychotherapy of alcoholism" and called for controlled studies to test these promising methods. Currently behavioral couples therapy (BCT) is the family therapy method with the strongest research support for its effectiveness in substance abuse.
Lawsuits Break Health Plans Grip: Are Reforms Imminent?
March 1st 1999Lately, things have not been going well for some of the nation's largest health plans. Lawsuits have managed care organizations around the country worried that their cost-cutting measures may end up penalizing them with liabilities in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
HCFA Urged To Extend Coverage of PET
March 1st 1999Efforts are underway to persuade the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) to expand Medicare coverage for positron emission tomography, popularly known as PET scanning. At present, the government only reimburses charges for PET scans in connection with the diagnosis of lung cancer.
Light Treatment for Nonseasonal Depression
March 1st 1999Daniel F. Kripke, M.D. has studied the relationship between biological rhythms and depression since the early 1970s. He states that seasonal responses in many mammals are controlled by the photoperiod. Therefore, it seemed that depression might be analogous to winter responses and that light might be an effective treatment.
Maintaining Medication for Chronic Depression
March 1st 1999Despite the development of better-tolerated antidepressants and more effective applications of nondrug modalities like cognitive-behavioral therapy, depressive disorders are often chronic or recurrent. The researchers point out that there has been relatively little evaluation of chronic depression, with most studies addressing short-term treatment of acute episodes.
Data-Driven Approach May Improve Care
March 1st 1999Given that passion, opinion, opportunism and inertia have shaped much of managed care's evolution, there is an increasing need for the systematic gathering and rational application of facts. Outcome evaluations and insights into what facilitates and what impedes efficient and effective care are now avidly sought, not only for improving care delivery and treatment effectiveness but also for regulatory functions and commercial promotion.
Melatonin and Sleep Disturbances
March 1st 1999In recent years, melatonin has been touted in the media as a "hot sleeping pill, natural and cheap" and as the drug that "may help ease insomnia, combat jet lag...and extend life." Trials are finally being conducted. Across the United States, some 30 medical centers are studying melatonin as a potential treatment for sleep disturbances.
Chavez Warns of Declining Mental Health Resources
February 1st 1999Warning of declining resources for mental health, Nelba Chavez, Ph.D., administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), said mental health must become a top priority in public policy, health care services and coverage, training of health care professionals and community education.
Commentary: Kevorkian on Trial
February 1st 1999Putting Kevorkian on trial is not the same as developing a rational health care policy for those who are terminally ill. Kevorkian needs to be checked, but too much significance should not be given to his case. Our concern with the care for those who are seriously or terminally ill is too important to relegate to the trial of someone who is so narrowly fixed on being the instrument of his own death or that of others.
The Politics of Health Care Can the APA Make a Difference?
February 1st 1999The Mental Health Parity Act of 1996-the long sought after federal law that was supposed to discourage health benefits discrimination against the mentally ill-was described as having "failed" to achieve parity because insurers and employers take advantage of loopholes. Despite the critical nature of the report, however, no one from the American Psychiatric Association, not a single psychiatrist for that matter, is quoted in the article.
National Center for Alternative Medicine Established
February 1st 1999A physician asks, via the Internet, for help in locating a resource to evaluate possible interactions between herbal remedies and Western medications. A Stanford researcher surveys 1,035 randomly selected people and reports that 40% of them have used such alternative health care as chiropractic, acupuncture or homeopathy during the past year (Astin, 1998). A survey of U.S. medical schools indicates nearly two-thirds of those responding (64%) now offer courses that include alternative medicine (Wetzel et al., 1998).
Scientific Assessment of Alternative Medicine
February 1st 1999Alternative medicine was the theme of this issue of JAMA and in each of the other nine American Medical Association journals published in November. The editors of these scientific journals made an effort to provide physicians and other health care professionals with clinically relevant, reliable, fresh scientific information on alternative therapies.
Therapeutic Aspects of the Human-Companion Animal Interaction
February 1st 1999Although the majority of American households includes a pet, it is only recently that we have begun to explore the relationship between people and their pets and the possible physical and emotional benefits of that relationship.
Assessing Antidepressant Safety in the Elderly
January 2nd 1999Although evidence shows that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants cause less orthostasis and interfere less with psychomotor function than do tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), a recent pharmacoepidemiologic study found them comparable in increasing elderly patients' risk for falling.
HMO Liability: Legal Barriers Are Finally Breaking Down
January 1st 1999For decades, physicians have railed against the inequities of malpractice laws, lobbying for statutory changes that would insulate them from injustices, both real and perceived. In an ironic twist, extending tort liability has become the latest weapon against managed care companies and the medical directors who often make utilization review determinations. As a result, managed care companies are now rushing to embrace the once scorned external review and independent appeals processes in a last-ditch effort to stave off reforms requiring them to justify health care decisions in front of judges and juries.
Peering Through the Looking Glass: Forensic Examinations and Privacy Issues
January 1st 1999As psychological and mental health issues increasingly take center stage in high profile criminal and civil proceedings, the ability to satiate inquiring minds often means trashing privacy and confidentiality at the altar of the public's right to know. Tyson isn't the only one whose psychological profile has been splayed out before an audience of billions in cyberspace.
Optimizing Behavioral Techniques Can Ease the Burden of Care
January 1st 1999When treating agitation in the elderly, the optimization of certain behavioral techniques may enhance medication therapies or sometimes eliminate the need for them. Clinicians should look more closely at the behavioral causes behind a demented older person's problem behavior.
AMBHA Releases New Performance Measures
January 1st 1999Aware that there is a "rush to hold all providers delivering mental health and chemical dependency services accountable for the accessibility, quality and satisfaction of such services," the American Managed Behavioral Healthcare Association (AMBHA) recently released the second version of its Performance Measures for Managed Behavioral Healthcare Programs (PERMS 2.0).
China's Suicide Patterns Challenge Depression Theory
January 1st 1999In Western psychiatry, depression is considered a major cause of suicide. But research from China calls that assumption into question. More than 300,000 suicides occur annually in China, nearly 10 times the number of suicides in the United States.