Unconventional fight in L.A.

Because of rising syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea rates in Los Angeles County, public health officials are beginning a new campaign to fight these STDs. This new campaign is not using traditional advertising methods, instead public health officials will be using drink coasters, murals, and sidewalk chalk.

Syphilis in gay and bisexual men in Los Angeles County increased by 365% between 2001 and 2005, officials said.

In 2005, gay and bisexual men made up more than two-thirds of the county’s roughly 1,200 syphilis cases.

Also in Los Angeles County, 67% of the 30,000 women with chlamydia and 65% of the 5,000 women reported to have gonorrhea were African American or Latinas, officials said.

Chronic health conditions on the rise

Chronic health conditions among this country’s children is raising. This is according to report issued by the Journal of American Medical Association. The report states that right now, 6.5 million children and adolescents have a chronic condition. The top three conditions are obesity, asthma and ADHD.

If children with chronic conditions not severe enough to be disabling are counted, chronic conditions affect about 18% of American teens and children in all, Perrin says.

New atypical going to phase II clinical trials

Schizophrenia.com is reporting that a new Clozapine like drug is entering stage II clinical trials.

ACP-104 is a actually a chemical called N-desmethylclozapine, a major
metabolite of clozapine (trade name Clorazil). Its development, which has been supported in part by the Stanley Medical Research Center, is designed to provide an atypical antipsychotic level of effectiveness with the added potential benefit of enhanced thinking ability, or cognition.

Broken military mental health sytem

A study released last week reports more money and more people would fix the broken military mental health system.

The yearlong study released last week was required by Congress, which wants a corrective action plan within six months. “I have no intention of waiting that long,” said Gates, adding that he’d directed a plan be finished in 60 to 90 days.

unplugged

I will be spending my weekend unplugged from the computer. My weekend will be spent at the beach. Hope everyone is relaxed and safe. See you on Monday…

Risperdal approval delayed

The approval for the use of Risperdal for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with teenagers has been delayed. No specifics have been given as why the approval has been delayed.

“The FDA is giving approvable letters for everything under the sun these days, and in this case they are particularly gun shy because this is about kids and there are known side effects,” said Ira Loss, an analyst at the Washington research firm Washington Analytics, in a telephone interview today.

Scrubs for SiCKO

The California Nurses Association backs Michael Moore’s new movie ‘SiCKO’. other supporters of the movie include, New York State Nurses Association, Massachusetts Nurses Association, Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, United Nurses and Allied Professionals (Rhode Island), and the New England Nurses Association.

Scrubs for SiCKO will begin a tour of the East Coast encouraging people to see the movie and bring awareness to the broken health system in the United States.

SiCKO opens June 29.

Follow this link to the California Nurses Association.

Stress and alzheimer’s linked?

A new study from the Salk Institute links repeated emotional stress and “neurofibrillary tangles” (a precursor to Alzheimer’s).  Be warned, the article is rather technical

“A long-term study of about 800 members of religious orders had found that the people who were most prone to stress were twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, but the nature of the link between the two has been elusive,” says Paul E. Sawchenko, Ph.D., a professor in the Neuronal Structure and Function Laboratory, who led a phalanx of Salk researchers contributing to the current study.

Psychiatric patients right to vote

This is a great article by The New York Times, that explores the ethics of patients with serious psychiatric impairments and their right to vote.

Is insanity a disability?

“I just think if you are declared insane you should not be allowed to vote, period,” said Joseph DeLorenzo, chairman of the Cranston Board of Canvassers. “Some people are taking these two clowns and calling them disabled persons. Is insanity a disability? I have an answer to that: no. You’re insane; you’re nuts.”

Death by sand

Summer is upon us. Who does not want to relax at the beach?  Be warned…it’s not sharks to worry about…it is the sand that can kill you.

Waves and sharks aren’t the only dangers at the beach. More than two dozen young people have been killed over the last decade when sand holes collapsed on them, report father-and-son doctors who have made warning of the risk their personal campaign.

Since 1985, at least 20 children and young adults in the United States have died in beach or backyard sand submersions. And at least eight others died in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, according to a letter from the doctors published in this week’s issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.