Paying Doctors to Screen Patients

According to Psychiatric News, Aetna, one of the world’s largest insurance companies “will pay increased fees” to primary care physicians who screen patients for depression.

Participating physicians “will be paid 30 to 40 percent more for a routine visit when the depression screening questionnaire is used.”

—Steven Sharfstein, M.D., “Economic Incentives Increase Access to Depression Care,” Psychiatric News, January 6, 2006, Vol. 41, #1, P. 3

Depression Drugs Failed the Test

“Antidepressants fail to cure the symptoms of major depression in half of all patients with the disease even if they receive the best possible care, according to a definitive government study released yesterday.
…
The $35 million taxpayer-funded study was the largest trial of its kind ever conducted….”

—Shankar Vedentam, “Drugs Cure Depression in Half of Patients, Doctors Have Mixed Reactions to Study Findings,” Washington Post, March 23, 2006

ADHD Drugs: Causing Psychosis

"The FDA said stronger warnings are needed on the risk of psychosis, a mental disorder characterized by the inability to distinguish real and imaginary events.

'The most important finding of this review is that signs of psychosis or mania, particularly hallucinations, can occur in patients with no identifiable risk factors, at usual doses of any of the drugs used to treat ADHD,' according to a memo dated March 3 from two members of the agency's ADHD psychiatric review team.

The review said current labeling neither addresses those concerns nor does it 'clearly state the importance of stopping drug therapy in any patient who develops hallucinations or other signs or symptoms of psychosis or mania during drug treatment of ADHD.'

The review found almost 1,000 reports of psychosis or mania possibly linked to the drugs -- which included Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin and Strattera -- from Jan. 1, 2000, through June 30, 2005."

—Jennifer Corbett Dooren, "FDA Urges Stronger Warnings on ADHD Drugs," The Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2006, at online.wsj.com

Your Kids on Drugs: Scary Statistics

“A 2005 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University revealed a disturbing 212-percent jump from 1992 to 2003 in the number of teens 12 to 17 abusing controlled prescription drugs. These included depressants and stimulants.

Americans spent some $2.5 billion in 2003 on psychiatric drugs for children, according to figures from Medco Health Solutions, a top pharmacy benefits management company that serves some 65 million members. That represented an attention-grabbing jump in just three years of 183 percent in such spending overall and of 369 percent in spending for ADHD drugs for preschoolers.”

—Lidia Wasowicz, UPI Sr. Science Writer, Jan. 27, 2006, Consumer Health, “Ped Med: The ADHD quandary”

ADHD: No Definitive Tests!

"The diagnosis of ADHD can be a complicated and challenging process... The clinician's role is further complicated by the absence of laboratory tests and imaging studies that can detect ADHD...."

"...And what does the DSM-IV-TR say about these patterns of behavior that can really help to pinpoint the diagnosis of ADHD?" inquired Dr. Salgo.

"I do not think anything actually nails the diagnosis, and that is probably where part of the controversy about the validity of ADHD comes from," replied Dr. Findling....."

—Medical Crossfire: Identification and Discussion of Key Issues and Advances in Pediatric ADHD, February 27, 2006, medscape.com

No Brain Tests for Disorders

"‘Chemical imbalance…it’s a shorthand term really, it’s probably drug industry derived… We don’t have tests because to do it, you’d probably have to take a chunk of brain out of someone — not a good idea.’"

—Dr. Mark Graff, Chair of the Committee of Public Affairs for the American Psychiatric Association. July, 2005.

"Historically, ADD has been a kids’ problem. In the 1960s, when it was known as ‘hyperactivity,’ it was a popular diagnosis—the drug Ritalin, then as now, was the prescription of choice. No matter what it’s called, a diagnosis of this problem usually implies some type of overactivity or inattention. But because ADD is so vaguely defined, even for a psychiatric disorder, it is tailor-made for bogus claims. There are, as the American Psychiatric Association’s latest diagnostic manual concedes, ‘no laboratory tests that have been established as diagnostic’ for ‘Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.’"

—Richard E. Vatz, Professor Towson State University, “Attention Deficit Delirium,” The Wall Street Journal, July 27, 1994.