The Wall Street Journal (12/16, Silverman, Subscription Publication) reports that a Federal judge has issued an injunction preventing Actavis PLC from removing the older version of the Namenda (memantine) Alzheimer’s medicine in favor of a newer version of the treatment. At issue is a tactic employed by pharmaceutical companies, called product hopping, in which a company releases a newer version of a drug and removes the older version before a generic version becomes available. Effectively, patients are forced into using the newer version.

Related Links:

— “Court Rules on Alzheimer’s Drug,” Ed Silverman, Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2014.

The Washington Post (12/16, Ingraham) “Wonkblog” reports that according to a study published in the December issue of the journal Sleep, people in the US appear to be exchanging sleep time for work. After examining “nearly 125,000 responses to the American Time Use Survey to calculate two things: first, how much sleep we’re getting, and second, what we’re doing instead of sleeping,” researchers found that “compared to normal sleepers, so-called ‘short sleepers’ – those who are getting six hours or less on weeknights – worked 1.5 more hours on weekdays and nearly two hours more on weekends and holidays.” People who worked at multiple jobs got even less sleep.

Related Links:

— “Americans are trading sleep for work, and it’s literally killing us,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post, December 15, 2014.

USA Today (12/16, Leger) reports that a national survey conducted by the University of Michigan’s “Monitoring the Future” project found that “marijuana use among teens declined this year even as two states, Colorado and Washington, legalized the drug for recreational use.”

The survey also found “Abuse of all prescription drugs, including narcotic painkillers, sedatives and amphetamines, declined from 16% in 2013 to 14% in 2014 among 12th graders, the survey found. Narcotic painkiller use, in decline since 2009, dropped again from 7% in 2013 to 6% in 2014.

Heroin use, which has grown among adult populations, remained stable for teens.” According to Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Teens considered narcotic pain relievers, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, safer than illicit drugs such as heroin and cocaine, because they are prescribed by doctors.”

Related Links:

— “Survey: Teen marijuana use declines even as states legalize,” Donna Leinwand Leger, USA Today, December 16, 2014.

The Dallas Morning News (12/14, Swanson) reported that the number of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) “treatments in Texas has increased 67 percent since 2001, according to figures compiled by the state health department.” The procedure “was used 14,176 times in Texas on 2,243 patients between Sept. 1, 2012, and Aug. 31, 2013, the last available reporting year.” Physicians who perform ECT “attribute its growing use to its success” at treating patients with major depression. Efficacy of the treatment has been recognized both by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association. Medicare also covers the treatment.

The AP (12/15) reprises the Dallas Morning News piece, reporting that opponents of ECT “say it has always caused, and continues to inflict, brain damage and long-term memory loss.” Three years ago, “the Food and Drug Administration published a survey of medical studies on the treatment, saying the studies generally concluded that it ‘is probably more effective than some anti-depressants.’” In addition, “the FDA says the studies…found that there is no evidence to suggest the treatment causes brain damage.”

Related Links:

— “Texas sees resurgence in use of electroconvulsive therapy,” Doug J. Swanson, Dallas Morning News, December 13, 2014.

The Washington Times (12/13, Klimas) reported that on Dec. 12, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), “said…a bill that veterans groups are trying to get passed before Congress leaves town for the year carries too hefty a price tag for authority that the VA could, in most cases, already exercise.” The Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act “would require a report on successful veteran suicide prevention programs and allow the VA to pay incentives to hire psychiatrists,” among other provisions. Coburn, a physician, referred to the proposed measure as “ineffective legislation.”

In response, “Saul Levin, CEO of the American Psychiatric Association, said, ‘Hundreds of additional lives will be lost’ if lawmakers wait until the next Congress to put these reforms into place.” When the article went to press, Coburn had plans to block the measure.

Related Links:

— “Tom Coburn puts hold on veterans suicide prevention bill,” Jacqueline Klimas, Washington Times, December 12, 2014.

On CBS News-60 Minutes (12/15), correspondent Scott Pelley reports that two years after the Newtown, CT shooting rampage, “we’ve learned that the killer suffered profound mental illness.” Even though “his parents sought treatment…at least once, their health insurance provider denied payment.” In investigating what some parents have gone through to get their children “psychiatric care,” CBS News “found that the vast majority of claims are routine, but the insurance industry aggressively reviews the cost of chronic cases.”

Forbes (12/15, Japsen) contributor Bruce Japsen points out that “Pelley highlighted several cases where doctors working for insurance companies, including Anthem (ANTM), denied claims by mentally ill patients in need of chronic long-term mental health care.” In addition, Pelley “said ‘60 Minutes’ found the claim denial rate often exceeded 90 percent by Anthem in cases it reviewed.” The segment “pressed the case that many of the cases were chronic and involved the need of patients for long-term care and that it largely came down to costs rather than quality of care provided.”

Related Links:

— “Denied,” Scott Pelley, CBS News 60 Minutes, December 14, 2014.

HealthDay (12/12, Dotinga) reports that according to a study published in the December issue of the journal Health Affairs, nearly “half of US kids experience traumas that can disrupt their development.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after “analyzing the results of a 2011-2012 survey of the parents of more than 95,000 children under the age of 17.” The survey focused on children “who experienced several types of trauma, such as living in extreme poverty, seeing their parents divorce, living with someone who was mentally ill or abused drugs/alcohol, having a parent who served time behind bars, or having a parent who died.”

Related Links:

— “http://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/misc-kid-s-health-news-435/almost-half-of-u-s-kids-suffer-trauma-that-harms-their-health-for-years-study-694439.html,” Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, December 11, 2014.

The AP (12/12, Eaton-Robb) reports that nearly two years after the Dec. 14, 2012 shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, “the scope of the psychological damage to children, parents and others is becoming clear, and the need for treatment is likely to persist a long time.”

Many townspeople are “reporting substance abuse, relationship troubles, disorganization, depression, overthinking or inability to sleep, all related to the” shooting rampage that cost 27 lives. Various agencies are putting together a long-term support system bolstered by $15 million in grant monies from the US Justice Department and the US Education Department, along with private donations made to the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation.

The town school system is putting into place a long-term program to help kids come to terms with what has happened. Meanwhile, the town has been consulting with outside experts to put together long-range plans to meet residents’ mental health needs for the next decade and beyond.

Related Links:

— “IN NEWTOWN, MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS STILL EMERGING,” Pat Eaton-Robb, Associated Press, December 11, 2014.

HealthDay (12/11, Preidt) reports on a review of 16 studies by researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, finding that “restricting the number of locations where alcohol can be sold in a community may help reduce domestic violence.” The study considered “the number of alcohol sales outlets, hours of days of alcohol sales, and alcohol pricing/taxes,” but only the number of outlets had a consistent association with “higher rates of domestic violence.”

Related Links:

— “Fewer Bars and Liquor Stores, Less Domestic Violence: CDC,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, December 10, 2014.

In continuing coverage, NPR (12/9, Jaffe, Benincasa) reported on its “Morning Edition” program and in its “Shots” blog that restrictions against nursing home residents being prescribed medically unnecessary antipsychotics are rarely enforced. Though they are not FDA-approved for the purpose, antipsychotics are often prescribed to elderly patients as a “chemical restraint” to treat the symptoms of dementia, in violation of the Nursing Home Reform Act. “We haven’t seen any evidence that, in this particular area of antipsychotic drugs, the CMS is taking action against states,” said Toby Edelman, a senior policy attorney with the Center for Medicare Advocacy, referring to the Federal agency in charge of administering Medicare.
Related Links:

— “Nursing Homes Rarely Penalized For Oversedating Patients,” Ina Jaffe and Robert Benincasa, National Public Radio, December 9, 2014.