VA Needs to Improve Handling of PTSD Claims: Report
Increasing numbers of U.S. veterans are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs needs better methods of evaluating such cases and determining how best to compensate affected personnel.
That's the conclusion of a report released Tuesday by a combined committee from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council.
Post-traumatic stress disorder claims to the VA increased from 120,265 in 1999 to 215,871 in 2004. During that same time, payments for PTSD-related disability claims increased from $1.72 billion to $4.28 billion, the Associated Press reported.
"As the increasing number of claims to the VA shows, PTSD has become a very significant public health problem, particularly for veterans of current and past conflicts," said committee chairwoman Nancy Andreasen, who is head of the psychiatry department at Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa.
"Our review of the current methods for evaluating PTSD disability claims and determining compensation indicates that a comprehensive revision is needed," Andreasen said.
She and her fellow panel members said the VA uses only crude criteria for rating disabilities caused by mental illness and is inconsistent when it comes to relapsing conditions, the AP reported.
The VA needs to develop new criteria based on the diagnostic standards of the American Psychiatric Association. The VA also needs to establish certification programs for staffers who handle post-traumatic stress disorder claims, the committee said.
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Scientists Develop New ALS Test
Scientists at the University of Toronto have created the first antibody that's able to detect the only known cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
ALS is a progressive, fatal disorder that attacks the nerves and muscles, resulting in paralysis and death within two to five years. There is no cure or effective treatment.
The antibody developed by the Canadian team identifies "misfolded" mutations in the enzyme superoxide-dimutase-1 (SOD1), which causes about one to two percent of all ALS cases, Agence France Presse reported.
The research was published online Monday in the journal Nature Medicine and will appear in the June print edition.
The study authors said their antibody could eventually be used to help diagnose ALS at an earlier stage. The antibody may also improve understanding of ALS and may help in efforts to find ways to immunize people against the disease, AFP reported.
"This antibody will enable researchers to investigate whether misfolded SOD1 is involved in other forms of ALS," lead author Janice Robertson, a professor of laboratory medicine and pathobiology, said in a prepared statement.
If SOD1 is involved in other forms of ALS, "then the antibody could potentially be used in biomarker studies to facilitate earlier diagnosis of the disease," she said.
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Clinton Foundation Reaches Deal on HIV/AIDS Drugs
The Clinton Foundation announced Tuesday that it has reached agreements with drug companies to reduce the costs of some HIV/AIDS drugs in developing countries.
The foundation said drug makers agreed to lower the price of drugs to fight HIV that is resistant to initial treatment, and to make a once-a-day HIV/AIDS pill available for less than $1 a day, the Associated Press reported.
The deals on the drugs to fight resistant HIV, reached with generic drug makers Cipla Ltd. and Matrix Laboratories Ltd., are expected to achieve average savings of 50 percent in middle-income countries and 25 percent in low-income countries, said former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
The agreement on the $1 once-a-day pills that combine the drugs efavirenz, lamivudine and tenofovir is 45 percent less than the current rate available for low-income countries and 67 percent less than the current price for many middle-income countries, the AP reported.
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U.S. Senate Vote Blocks Drug Imports
In a 49-40 vote, the U.S. Senate on Monday passed an amendment that effectively blocks a plan to allow imports of cheaper drugs into the U.S., which proponents say could save American consumers billions of dollars, Tribune Newspapers reported.
The amendment to the bill to allow cheaper drug imports requires that the federal government certify that the imports are safe and effective. That's something the Bush administration is not likely to do because it opposes drug imports.
The amendment, introduced by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), is considered a major victory for the U.S. drug industry, Tribune Newspapers reported.
Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont Independent who's in favor of allowing drug imports, said Cochran's amendment "is clearly a poison pill."
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), the author of the import proposal, said the drug industry wants to dictate prices to U.S. consumers, Tribune Newspapers reported.
Dorgan said the fight to allow drug imports is not over.
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Heart Diagnostic Tests Recalled
Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics on Monday announced a voluntary recall in the United States of two lots of diagnostic tests used by doctors to help diagnose heart attack and heart muscle injury, AFX News reported.
The recall of the Vitros Immunodiagnostic products Troponin I Regent Pack, lots 3151 and 3170, was issued because of shifts in test results that could result in a missed diagnosis of heart attack or heart muscle damage.
Ortho-Clinical said a "small" number of clinical laboratories using the test reported shifts in quality control results, AFX News reported.
The cause of the fault has yet to be determined. There have been no reported injuries due to the problem, the company said.
Clinical laboratories that have the recalled lots should stop using the product and notify healthcare professionals who ordered the test in recent weeks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.
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Obesity May Lower Kidney Donation Rates Among Blacks
Obesity and failure to complete the donor evaluation procedure are two of the main reasons why black Americans are less likely than people of other races to become living kidney donors, concludes a Wake Forest University School of Medicine study.
Researchers analyzed data on 541 disqualified potential donors. They found that about 30 percent of blacks were excluded due to obesity, compared to 16.6 percent of whites. The study also found that 12 percent of blacks did not complete the donor evaluation process, compared to 1.8 percent of whites.
The findings were presented Monday at the 2007 American Transplant Congress in San Francisco.
"Obesity is a growing problem in the African-American community, particularly among women, and this reflects what we found in the study. The other issue is the social reasons for non-donation, including failure to complete the donor evaluation process. This issue is just not well understood," study author Amber Reeves-Daniel, an instructor in internal medicine-nephrology, said in a prepared statement.
"Further study of these (racial) differences may improve our understanding of the causes of low rates of living kidney donation among African-Americans, particularly regarding the social reasons," she said. "Is it lack of trust in the medical community, financial inability to get to doctor's appointments for tests, concerns with work and child care, or perhaps some other issue?"
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