`War! What is it good for?’

            WASHINGTON - An American Psychological Association report focuses on increasing mental health needs of military personnel and their families - needs that strain the current military health services system. Many service personnel and family members are going without mental health care due to limited availability of care and barriers to accessing it. The report notes that while service delivery efforts by individual military mental health providers are laudable, the system falls short in ability to meet psychological health needs of deployed personnel and families. “Deployment can be a complex, and for some families, overwhelming process,” said Dr. Michelle Sherman, task force co-chair. The report found more military personnel and their families are reporting emotional problems from deployment stress. More than 30% of all soldiers met the criteria for a mental disorder but 23-40% of those with such concerns sought help. The figures don’t include those who don’t identify concerns or those who develop symptoms after returning from deployments.

            WASHINGTON - Monday Morning in Washington, DC noted Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced the Community Choice Act of 2007 (S.799) to add access to community-based services and supports for Americans with disabilities and older Americans. "I strongly believe it is important to level the playing field and give eligible individuals equal access to community-based services and supports," Sen. Harkin said. The bill gives those eligible for nursing home services or other institutional care equal access to community-based services and supports. It provides enhanced federal matching funds to help states develop long-term care infrastructure and grant funds to help states add ability to provide home and community-based services. Also, it creates a project to evaluate service coordination and cost-sharing approaches for those eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare. These senators co-sponsored the bill: Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Christopher Dodd (D-CT).

            IRVINE , CA - The chemical compound at the heart of the so-called abortion pill appears to block breast cancer, at least in experimental mice. In mice genetically engineered to carry mutations in two genes involved in most human breast cancers, Mifeprex completely blocked tumor development. No palpable tumors were detected at 12 months of age, said Dr. Eva Lee, of the University of California/Irvine. By contrast, the median time to development of a palpable tumor in untreated and placebo-treated mice was 6.6 months, and all the animals came down with the disease by at least 8.7 months of age, Dr. Lee and colleagues reported in the journal Science. "We're excited about this discovery and hope it leads to new options for women with a high risk for developing breast cancer," Dr. Lee stated. The finding arose from experiments aimed at understanding the relationship of progesterone to the normal BRCA1 gene which, when mutated, predisposes women to breast and ovarian cancer.

            WASHINGTON - The Kaiser Family Foundation reported that after a steady decline in Medicare Advantage plan participation and enrollment 1999-2003, a record 8.3 million Medicare beneficiaries are now enrolled in private Medicare health plans, up from 5.3 million in 2003. Virtually all Medicare beneficiaries, including those living in rural areas, now have access to one or more Medicare Advantage plans, such as a Medicare HMO, PPO, special needs plan, or private fee-for-service plan. The most rapid growth in enrollment is in private fee-for-service plans, with 1.3 million Medicare beneficiaries enrolled as of February 2007, up from 209,000 in December, 2005.

            SAN FRANCISCO - MedPage Today noted 25% of veterans treated at VA hospitals after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have mental health problems, investigators say. When psychosocial and behavioral woes were mixed in, nearly 33% of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans who sought care at a VA facility were diagnosed with a mental health-related disorder, said Dr. Karen Seal, of the University of California , and the San Francisco VA , and colleagues. More than 50% of returning vets with a mental health diagnosis were found to have two or more mental health disorders, investigators wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Prior studies showed 20% of Iraq or Afghanistan veterans with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder is actually screened for it, the Government Accountability Office has stated. Using data from the U.S. Dept. of Defense, GAO found 5% of the 178,664 service men and women deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq may be at risk for PTSD, but only 22% of the at-risk group were referred for mental health study.

            WASHINGTON - CNN.com reported all prescription sleeping pills may sometimes cause sleep-driving, health officials warned, a year after the bizarre side effect made headlines when Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car after taking Ambien. It's more complicated than sleep-walking, but behind the wheel: getting up in the middle of the night for a drive - with no memory of it. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) didn't say exactly how many cases of sleep-driving it linked to insomnia drugs. Neurology chief Dr. Russell Katz said FDA uncovered more than a dozen reports and is worried more are uncounted. Given the millions of prescriptions for insomnia drugs, he called the problem rare, and said he was unaware of any deaths. Because sleep-driving is so dangerous, and there are precautions patients can take, FDA ordered a series of strict new steps. Makers of 13 sleep drugs must put warnings on their labels about two rare but serious side effects. All prescription sleeping pills will come with "Medication Guides" that spell out risks for patients in easy-to-understand language.

              BOSTON - Research from Children’s Hospital Boston and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) may help explain how glaucoma causes blindness, revealing the chain of cellular and molecular events that damage the optic nerve, preventing visual information from traveling from the eye to the brain. The study, done in mice, indicates possible targets for intervention, including an inflammatory molecule called tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), targeted by some existing drugs. “These findings give a whole new approach to thinking about glaucoma therapy,” says D. Joan Miller, chief of ophthalmology at the MEEI and a co-author of the study online at the Journal of Neuroscience. Glaucoma affects an estimated three million Americans, and it’s speculated an equal number are affected but undiagnosed. The disease is 6-8 times more common in African-Americans than in Caucasians, and six times more common in people over 60 than in younger people. If glaucoma is diagnosed early, eye drops or surgery to lower intraocular pressure can often prevent further optic nerve damage and halt vision loss.

      ` WASHINGTON - Monday Morning in Washington, DC noted The Arc's 56th national convention will be held Oct. 11-13 at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas (www.thearc.org).

            ROCHESTER, NY - Reuters Health noted blacks are more likely than whites to want sustaining care at the end of life for an incurable illness or a serious physical or mental disability, a study shows. While more than half of blacks surveyed said they would want life support if they had a chronic condition and were brain dead, just 11% of whites would want this. Nearly 75% of blacks said they would want sustaining care if they were terminally ill and had senile dementia versus 22.2% of whites. The choices are in conflict with the "prevailing ethic" of the U.S. medical establishment that "it's not advisable to offer life-extending treatment to people in a terminal situation," Dr. William A. Bayer, of the University of Rochester, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health. He did the study after noticing how black families frequently wanted a loved one to stay on life support, while hospital staff - largely white - though it should be discontinued. Across the board, blacks were more likely to want life-sustaining care than whites, he and his colleagues found. The differences were starkest involving brain death and senile dementia.