In a letter to the editor of the Washington Post (5/4), John Oldham, MD, president of the American Psychiatric Association, writes in regard to the “April 29 Outlook article titled ‘When a diagnosis does more harm than good.'” Dr. Oldham observes, “Paula J. Caplan contended that many people are ‘arbitrarily slapped with a psychiatric label,’ which can ‘cost anyone their health insurance, job, custody,’ etc. I find this argument troubling, since overwhelming evidence demonstrates that stigma and misinformation about psychiatric illness prevent people from getting appropriate treatment.” Dr. Oldham points out, “Brain disorders are just as real as disorders of other organs in the body. The process of diagnosis is not an exact science, but a scientifically informed one, and scientific understanding of brain disorders is advancing rapidly.”

Related Links:

— “A psychiatric ‘label’ can save a life,”Edward Gogek, The Washington Post, May 3, 2012.

The Washington Post (5/4, Vogel) reports, “Seeking new ways to treat post-traumatic stress, the Department of Veterans Affairs is studying the use of transcendental meditation to help” veterans. The department “has a ‘huge investment’ in mental-health care but is seeking alternatives to conventional psychiatric treatment, said” VA Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould, who spoke at a “summit Thursday in Washington on the use of TM to treat post-traumatic stress suffered by veterans and active-duty service members.” According to the Post, VA’s “$5.9 billion system for mental-health care is under sharp criticism, particularly after” the recent release of an inspector general’s report on how long it takes vets to get such care from VA.

In its “Federal Eye” blog, the Washington Post (5/4, Vogel) notes that VA is “spending about $5 million on a dozen trials involving several hundred veterans from a range of conflicts, including Iraq and Afghanistan. Results from the trials will not be available for another 12 to 18 months.” Gould, however, “said he was ‘encouraged’ by the results of trials which were presented at the summit.”

Related Links:

— “VA testing whether meditation can help treat PTSD,”Steve Vogel, The Washington Post, May 3, 2012.

MedPage Today (5/3, Gever) reports, “Draft revisions to the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) influential diagnostic manual are again open for public comment, the group announced Wednesday” in a press release (pdf). “This is the last opportunity for the general public to provide input on the fifth edition of the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, before it is put into essentially final form at the end of this year. The formal release is slated for May 2013.” The APA is seeking public comment through June 15. The latest draft of the document and further information about it can be seen here.

Related Links:

— “Input Sought Again on DSM-5,”John Gever, Medpage Today, May 2, 2012.

The Washington Times (5/3, Hill) reports, “Gov. Martin O’Malley signed bills into law on Wednesday, including legislation that will limit use of septic systems and double the state’s so-called ‘flush tax,'” which “were among several notable pieces of environmental legislation.” In addition, he “signed a bill allowing the state to set up a health benefits exchange where residents and small businesses can buy benefits from private insurers in accordance with the US Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”

Related Links:

— “Environmental, health insurance bills become Md. law,”David Hill , The Washington Times, May 2, 2012.

Reuters (5/2, Pittman) reports that an analysis published May 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that many clinical trials testing medications and devices are small and the quality is not consistent.

MedPage Today (5/2, Smith) reports that investigators analyzed “the more than 95,000 studies registered since 2004” in the ClinicalTrials.gov database. The researchers found “that the database is dominated by small studies, many conducted at a single center, with significant differences that would make them hard to compare.” The investigators, “for much of the analysis…concentrated on interventional trials in three areas — oncology, cardiology, and mental illness — that included a total of 79,413 studies.”

HealthDay (5/2, Dotinga) reports that altogether, “seven percent of the studies didn’t bother to mention their purpose, while others failed to provide other important details.” The researchers found that “62 percent of the trials from 2007-2010 were small, with 100 or fewer participants.” Just “four percent had more than 1,000 participants.”

Medscape (5/2, Brown) reports, “Mental health trials were more likely than cardiovascular and oncology trials to report use of” data monitoring committees. The researchers found that “oncology trials were least likely to use randomization (64.7% didn’t use randomization, vs 26.2% for cardiovascular trials and 20.8% for mental health trials), and 87.6% of oncology trials were not blinded.”

Related Links:

— “Drug and device trials vary in size, quality: study,”Genevra Pittman , Reuters, May 01, 2012.