Saturday Sanity: Drugs And Government Issues
April 5, 2008 by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
- If you missed Wednesday’s post about Prescription for Change, the Consumers Union petition to the FDA to make it easier for consumers to report side effects of medications, I highly recommend checking it out.
- In other drug news, the AstraZeneca Patient Assistance Programs now have a total of three “AZ & Me” prescription assistance programs (particularly interesting for those of you who take Seroquel and Seroquel XR.
- Mental Health America has issued another call to action for us. This one regards proposed cuts in Medicaid funding for rehabilitative, case management, and school administrative services - all of which include mental health services and support of “Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008″ (H.R. 5613). Of course I sent a letter to my decision makers, but I had to giggle while I was doing so because I’m positive dear old Nick Rahall is getting tired of finding emails from me! God bless him, though. He always responds via snail mail with his views on the matter and a nice thank you. Find out if your decision maker(s) are cosponsoring H.R. 5613, and send a letter of support.
- Another update from Mental Health America: “No Health Without Mental Health,” Mental Health America’s 2008 Conference in Washington, D.C. is right around the corner (June 4-7), and Mental Health America President and CEO David Shern, Ph.D. has prepared a 30-second video to invite us all!
- Why is it that when states experience budget problems, health and education services are usually the first to suffer? I honestly don’t know which is worse: increased taxes, or decreased health services and laid off state employees. At this point, I’m pretty sure I feel the latter is much worse.
- New findings regarding genes and their relationship to schizophrenia could lead to new treatment options for managing the mental illness.
- Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have stumbled upon some findings they may not only help “test” patients for depression, but may also help speed along the process of finding the best antidepressant.
- And, I’m a bit late on reporting this, but better late than never, right? The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the reauthorization of the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act (S. 2304) on March 9. According to the article, the bill “will help provide states and counties with the resources needed to design and implement collaborative efforts between the criminal justice and mental health systems.”
That’s all for this week, folks! If you think you have any Saturday Sanity-worthy news, send it my way before next Saturday!
Why doesn’t NAMI warn about the paternal age effect in schizophrenia and autism? It has been researched and reported on for over 50 years?
Les: As I’m not a NAMI employee (just the Affiliate Leader for my area’s NAMI affiliation), I won’t take it upon myself to speak for their employees and what they have or haven’t done. I can, however, point you in the direction of an article that NAMI linked to on their Web site in the past, discussing autism in relation to parental age. The article, Father’s Age May Play Role in Autism Risk, was posted on http://www.npr.org in 2006 and linked at NAMI’s official Web site from here. Hopefully that helps in some way?
To find answers about NAMI and information they provide (as well as their mission regarding education and research), you’d definitely have more luck contacting your state’s NAMI office and speaking with an employee. I don’t know where you live, but you can find contact information for your state’s NAMI by clicking HERE.
And, as a side note, I’m not sure if you’re referring to anything I’ve linked to in this post specifically, or if this post merely sparked your question, but the only schizophrenia-related news link in this post deals with research and researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, New York - not NAMI. However, the article does mention a quote from Dr. Thomas Insel, the head of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), so you may want to contact them, too.
Hope that helps!
Alicia,
I have done my own research on the role of paternal age and schizophrenia and autism and it overwhelmingly points to a strong connection in non-familial cases. A public health warning to father before 35 is well overdue. There are studies from all over the world pointing to the same finding and Alzheimer’s is also in this picture. It is frustrating that maternal age or maternal behavior gets the press in disorders.
Hey Les, would you be interested in sharing your research here? I could give you a guest post spot here at Mental Health Notes one day and you could write an article/post on what you’ve learned through your research.