Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Good News for Mental Illness in Health Law - NYT - 7.9.12
Good News for Mental Illness in Health Law
By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D.
Americans with mental illness had good reason to celebrate when the Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The law promises to give them something they have never had before: near-universal health insurance, not just for their medical problems but for psychiatric disorders as well.
Until now, people with mental illness and substance disorders have faced stingy annual and lifetime caps on coverage, higher deductibles or simply no coverage at all.
This was supposed to be fixed in part by the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which mandated that psychiatric illness be covered just the same as other medical illnesses. But the law applied only to larger employers (50 or more workers) that offered a health plan with benefits for mental health and substance abuse. Since it did not mandate universal psychiatric benefits, it had a limited effect on the disparity between the treatment of psychiatric and nonpsychiatric medical diseases.
Now comes the Affordable Care Act combining parity with the individual mandate for health insurance. As Dr. Dilip V. Jeste, president of the American Psychiatric Association, told me, “This law has the potential to change the course of life for psychiatric patients for the better, and in that sense it is both humane and right.”
To get a sense of the magnitude of the potential benefit, consider that about half of Americans will experience a major psychiatric or substance disorder at some point, according to an authoritative 2005 survey. Yet because of the stigma surrounding mental illness, poor access to care and inadequate insurance coverage, only a fraction of those with mental illness receive treatment.
For example, surveys show that only about 50 percent of Americans with a mood disorder had psychiatric treatment in the past year — leaving the rest at high risk of suicide, to say nothing of the high cost to society in absenteeism and lost productivity. The World Health Organization ranks major depression as the world’s leading cause of disability.
One of the health care act’s pillars is to forbid the exclusion of people with pre-existing illness from medical coverage. By definition, a vast majority of adult Americans with a mental illness have a pre-existing disorder. Half of all serious psychiatric illnesses — including major depression, anxiety disorders and substance abuse — start by 14 years of age, and three-fourths are present by 25, according to the National Comorbidity Survey. These people have specifically been denied medical coverage by most commercial insurance companies — until now.
From an epidemiologic and public health perspective, the provision that young people can remain on their parents’ insurance until they turn 26 is a no-brainer: By this age, the bulk of psychiatric illness has already developed, and there is solid evidence that we can positively change the course of psychiatric illness by early treatment.
Mental disorders are chronic lifelong diseases, characterized by remission and relapse for those who respond to treatment, or persistent symptoms for those who do not. In schizophrenia, for example, relapse is common, even with the best treatment. It makes no sense to tell someone with this condition that his lifetime mental health benefit is just 60 days of inpatient hospitalization.
Psychiatric illness is treatable, but it is rarely curable; it may remit for a while, but it doesn’t go away. That is why the current limits on treatment are as irrational as they are cruel — the discriminatory hallmark of commercial medical insurance.
No more. The Affordable Care Act treats psychiatric illness like any other and removes obstacles to fair and rational treatment.
Older people with mental illness will also benefit, because the law will eventually fill in the notorious gap in Medicare drug coverage known as the “doughnut hole.” The law will immediately require drug companies to give a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs and then gradually provide subsidies until the gap closes in 2020.
On the other hand, poor people with mental illness still have cause for concern. The new law would have expanded Medicaid to insure 17 million more Americans, but the Supreme Court ruled that states could decline to accept this expansion without losing their existing Medicaid funds. In states that opt out of the Medicaid expansion, poor people with mental illness may find themselves in a terrible predicament: They earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, yet not enough to get the federal subsidy to pay for insurance.
But on the whole, the Affordable Care Act is reason to cheer. Americans with mental illness finally have the prize that has eluded patients and clinicians for decades: the recognition that psychiatric illness should be on a par with all other medical disorders, and the near-universal mandate to make that happen.
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via psychiatric diagnosis - Google Blog Search by Jeanette Bartha on 7/23/12
The list of acronyms associated with psychiatric diagnoses grows and changes every 10-15 years. For example combining letters like MPD/DID is no longer suffice to refer to Multiple Personality Disorder now called ...
via psychiatric diagnosis - Google Blog Search by Jeanette Bartha on 7/24/12
In addition to supplying detailed descriptions of diagnostic criteria, DSM is also a necessary tool for collecting and communicating accurate public health statistics about the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. “The American ...
via Twitter / APAPsychiatric on 7/24/12
APAPsychiatric: RT @ParityCoalition: You got it, Dr. Drew: "It's about making parity a reality" @DrDrewHLN http://t.co/ylgt8Yoo
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APAPsychiatric: RT @ParityCoalition: 2 weeks: Chicago parity field hearing w/ @janschakowsky @PJK4brainhealth @hazelden @GradPsychology @RecoverGateway ...
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APAPsychiatric: RT @AmerMedicalAssn: #AMAblog: IMGs play a vital role in American medicine. http://t.co/51zorxAn
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APAPsychiatric: RT @MySahana: SouthAsian MentalHealth Connection is out! http://t.co/qYImS97P ▸ Top stories today via @CollegeDesis @APAPsychiatric @Tal ...
via psychiatric diagnosis - Google News on 7/24/12
Classifying neural circuit dysfunctions using neuroeconomics
EurekAlert (press release) Philadelphia, PA, July 24, 2012 – The traditional approach to psychiatric diagnosis is based on grouping patients on the basis of symptom clusters. This approach to diagnosis has a number of problems, as symptoms are not necessarily specific to a ... and more » |
via psychiatric journal articles - Google News on 7/24/12
Classifying neural circuit dysfunctions using neuroeconomics
EurekAlert (press release) With this in mind, Steve Chang, along with colleagues from Duke University, introduces a new classification scheme for psychiatric symptoms based on the state of a dysfunctional neural circuit. This is a thought-provoking proposal altering the way ... and more » |
via international psychiatry - Google Blog Search by admin8 on 7/23/12
International 5390 Registered Nurses (Psychiatry). 5390 Apply ... The hospital is seeking Registered Nurse(s) in Psychiatry ... Job Tags: nursing and registered nurse psychiatry. ... throughout North America and International.
via Psychiatric News Alert by noreply@blogger.com (Psychiatric News Alert) on 7/24/12
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Read much more about bapineuzumab and the search for an Alzheimer's treatment in Psychiatric News here and here.
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via international psychiatry - Google News on 7/24/12
World's Largest Resource for OCD Comes to Chicago
MarketWatch (press release) Presentations about the latest in OCD research, including a study by the IOCDF Genetics Collaborative to be published in Molecular Psychiatry about likely genetic culprits of OCD. -- Kids and teens programs including art therapy, cooking with the hotel ... and more » |
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Giving phobias a rest: Research suggests key role for sleep in treating ...
Medical Xpress Exposure therapy for irrational fear of spiders seems to be more effective if it is followed by sleep, according to a recent study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. The results have implications for treatment of phobias, social anxiety, and post ... |
via psychiatry research - Google News on 7/24/12
First research to identify adolescent drinking cause by race
Examiner.com Sarah L. Pedersen, assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, examined a group of 117 African American adolescents and 330 European American adolescents from the ages of eight and ten years old at the initial ... Disinhibition/drinking differences between African-American and European ...EurekAlert (press release) all 4 news articles » |
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Night lights may foster depression
Science News Psychiatrists sometimes prescribe light therapy to treat a form of depression in people who get too little morning sun. But too much light at other times may actually trigger such mood disorders. Chronic exposure to light at night unleashes depression ... Late night TV/computer sessions linked to depressionFox News Late-Night Computer Use Can Cause DepressioniScienceTimes.com Artificial Light Might Trigger DepressionLifehacker Australia The Press Association all 48 news articles » |
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Looking into the minds of killers
CNN Editor's note: Jeffrey Swanson is a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University's School of Medicine. (CNN) -- A witness to the horrific shooting rampage in the Colorado movie theater called it "the longest minute" of his life ... Kevin Bloom says there's something deeply disturbing at the heart of American ...Eyewitness News Gun Range Owner Says James Holmes Sounded 'Freakish' Over PhoneMediaite all 440 news articles » |
via Twitter / NIMHgov on 7/24/12
NIMHgov: Attending the #AIDS2012 Intl Conf this week? Don't miss this session about mental disorders and HIV/AIDS on tues eve http://t.co/tjfJoIyK
via international psychiatry journals - Google News on 7/24/12
World's Largest Resource for OCD Comes to Chicago
MarketWatch (press release) Presentations about the latest in OCD research, including a study by the IOCDF Genetics Collaborative to be published in Molecular Psychiatry about likely genetic culprits of OCD. -- Kids and teens programs including art therapy, cooking with the hotel ... |
via Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life by Gordon Shippey on 7/24/12
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via psychiatry - Google Blog Search by unknown on 7/23/12
I am currently working with a client basedwho requires a Psychiatrist for a short term locum as soon as possible. General Psychiatrists are welcome to apply, though psychiatrists with sub specialities/ special interests within the ...
via psychiatric journal articles - Google News on 7/23/12
Report: Fewer public psychiatric beds in Maryland, Virginia
Washington Post “Many states appear to be effectively terminating a public psychiatric treatment system that has existed for nearly two centuries,” said the report issued last weekby the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit that studies mental health care. “The ... |
The New York Times on Addictions - 11:37 AM 7/24/2012
The New York Times on Addictions - 11:37 AM 7/24/2012
How Exercise May Make Addictions Better, or Worse
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The medical establishment is seeing addiction more as a physical disease, and 10 medical schools have introduced residency programs in ...July 10, 2011 - - Health - Article - Print Headline: "Medicine Adds Slots for Study Of Addictions"An Addiction Vaccine, Tantalizingly Close
Scientists are at work on shots that could one day release people from the grip of substance abuse.October 3, 2011 - - Health - Article - Print Headline: "An Addiction Vaccine, Tantalizingly Close"THE ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY - COMMON TRAITS ARE FOUND ...
Who is the addict? With addictive tragedies striking every community in the nation - with many millions of Americans addicted to alcohol and ...January 18, 1983 - - Science - Article - Print Headline: "THE ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY: COMMON TRAITS ARE FOUND"Observatory - Fruit Flies Aid in Study of Addiction
By exposing fruit flies to alcohol, researchers hope to gain genetic insight into human behavior.December 15, 2009 - - Science - Article - Print Headline: "Flies Get Tipsy and Aid The Study of Addiction"Genetic Studies Promise a Path to Better Treatment of Addictions
Genetic Studies Promise a Path to Better Treatment of Addictions November 14, 2000, Tuesday By LINDA CARROLL NYT Health & Fitness Late Edition - Final ...Celebrity's Son: Big Connections And Addictions; Ordeal of Moyers ...
William Cope Moyers was graced by fortune, with good looks, wit and social privilege inherited from celebrity parents. His father, Bill Moyers, ...March 20, 1998 - New York and Region - ArticleDoctors Found to Fail in Diagnosing Addictions
JUST a small fraction of the millions of people who are dependent on alcohol and illegal drugs get help from their doctors, a national panel of ...February 14, 1996 - Health - Article
UNIT CITES ABUSE OF BARBITURATES; Senate Subcommittee ...
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Reporting on an 18.month study, the subcommittee on juvenile delinquency said that as many as one million Americans may be addicted to barbiturates, most of ... View free previewDecember 5, 1972 - Health - Article - Article - Print Headline: "UNIT CITES ABUSE OF BARBITURATES; Senate Subcommittee Sees Epidemic of Addictions"
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A new hormone-injection treatment for alcoholics that can be extended to narcotic addicts was described in detail here yesterday to members of the American ... View free previewJune 3, 1950 - Health - Article - Article - Article - Print Headline: "HORMONE INJECTED IN TWO ADDICTIONS; Clinical Success Is Reported in Adrenal-Cortical Therapy for Alcoholic and Narcotic DEFICIENCY IS CORRECTED Restoring of Normal Function of Body Described by Doctors to the Geriatrics Society Adrenal Insufficiency Noted Two Types of Alcoholics Reversal of the Processes"- Having trouble finding what you're looking for? Try our advanced search while our archive is being re-indexed.
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