The Colorado Daily (11/18, Brennan) reported that a University of Colorado study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering suggests that “physical pain and social pain are processed by distinct neural circuits, which could help direct scientists and clinicians toward prevention and treatment options that work best for emotional suffering.” While “neuroscientists in the past decade had largely come to think that physical and social pain are processed by the brain in the same way.” Now, “a new study led by CU graduate student Choong-Wan Woo shows the two types of pain actually use separate neural circuits.”

Related Links:

— “CU-Boulder study shows differences in brain’s processing of emotional, physical pain,” Charlie Brennan, The Colorado Daily, November , 2014.

HealthDay (11/19, Haelle) reports that according to a study published in the December issue of the journal Anesthesiology, “the proportion of women dependent on drugs such as narcotic painkillers or heroin during pregnancy has more than doubled in the past decade and a half.” The research “covers a class of drugs known as opioids, which include prescription painkillers such as oxycodone (Oxycontin) and Vicodin; morphine and methadone; as well as illegal drugs such as heroin.” Researchers arrived at the study’s conclusion after analyzing “national hospitalization data on nearly 57 million deliveries between 1998 and 2011.”

Bloomberg News (11/18, Edney) reports that, according to a study released by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, “it costs drugmakers $2.56 billion to bring a new medicine to market, on average,” which is “more than double the price of 11 years ago,” according to a study released today. The researchers say the higher cost “comes from clinical trials that are larger and more complex, as well as more drugs that fail in development.” Joseph DiMasi, director of economic analysis at the Boston-based center, said in a statement, “Drug development remains a costly undertaking despite ongoing efforts across the full spectrum of pharmaceutical and biotech companies to rein in growing R&D costs.”

The Boston Globe (11/19, Weisman) outlines what the researchers said has driven up the cost of developing medication within recent years. According to Tufts officials, one “reason for surging development costs is that scientists are seeking to develop medicines for more complex and difficult-to-treat diseases, ranging from Alzheimer’s to brain and pancreatic cancers.” Other factors cited by Tufts officials include “regulatory requirements mandating clinical trials with more patients and longer time frames, and the expense of studies to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of new [medicines],” and they factored in “rising costs of those [medication] candidates that prove unsuccessful in the laboratory or do not win regulatory approval.” Those medicines “account for the vast majority of experimental treatments.” Data included in the study showed that “only 11.8 percent of drug compounds entering clinical testing are eventually approved.”

Related Links:

— “Scientists close in on non-addictive opioid painkillers,” Laura Ungar, USA Today, November 17, 2014.

The New York Times (11/18, Gross) “The New Old Age” blog reports that according to an article published March 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, physicians may overlook the needs of caregivers, ignoring the needs of people who care for “an elderly family member with dementia or a heart condition or diabetes — or all of the above.”

Recently, the author of that article, Ronald D. Adelman, MD, co-chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, gave a talk on that very subject in which he detailed “the risk factors for caregiver burden that should ‘trigger assessment,’” such as “being a woman; the number of hours of care provided; the complexity of medical tasks” being performed; “transitions from one kind and location of care to another,” stress caused by finances; lack of caregiver education; presence of cognitive impairment in the patient; whether the caregiver actually lives with the patient, and finally, whether the caregiver had any choice in taking on that role.

Related Links:

— “Seeing the ‘Invisible Patient’,” Jane Gross, New York Times, November 17, 2014.

USA Today (11/18) reports that researchers are “closing in on creating medicines that could relieve severe, chronic pain without getting people hooked – raising hopes as well as skepticism among those fighting drug abuse.” One company, “Cara Therapeutics, recently released research showing its opioid medication,” currently known as CR845, “is far less likely to cause patients to feel high than a control medicine considered to have a low potential for abuse.”

Related Links:

— “Scientists close in on non-addictive opioid painkillers,” Laura Ungar, USA Today, November 17, 2014.

The New York Times (11/15, B4, Tugend, Subscription Publication) reported that some 43.7 million US adults “suffer from a mental, behavioral or emotional disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.” Many are in the workplace and may have a difficult time because of their disorder. Although “the Americans with Disabilities Act forbids companies from firing people with mental health conditions as long as they can do the ‘essential functions’ of the job as determined by the employer, people may not feel safe” disclosing a mental health disorder to their supervisors for fear of losing their jobs. Bosses may be unaware of ADA requirements or of company policies requiring schedule flexibility. The Times adds that “the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, part of the American Psychiatric Association… posts on its website case studies of companies that have introduced programs to address the issue.”

Related Links:

— “Deciding Whether to Disclose Mental Disorders to the Boss,” Alina Tugend, New York Times, November 14, 2014.

In The Hill (11/15) Congress Blog, former Surgeon General and Director of the CDC David Satcher, MD, wrote that people should be more frightened by Alzheimer’s disease than by Ebola. “While there is virtually no chance of contracting Ebola in the US right now, the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s or needing to care for someone with Alzheimer’s is staggering.” But, according to Dr. Satcher, “progress on Alzheimer’s is being held back by limited funding,” as evidenced by the fact that “for every $26,500 Medicare and Medicaid spend on Alzheimer’s care, the NIH spends only $100 on research.” Earlier this year in testimony before Congress, NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, said that Alzheimer’s research is “unfortunately limited by resources.”

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s is greater public health crisis than Ebola,” David Satcher, MD, The Hill, November 14, 2014.

Major newspapers, wire sources, Internet and consumer medical outlets cover the findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Youth Tobacco Survey revealing that 22.9 percent of high school students are currently using a tobacco product. The survey, published Nov. 13 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also found that 4.5 percent of high school students used e-cigarettes in the previous month in 2013, up from 2.8 percent in 2012 and 1.5 percent in 2011.

USA Today (11/14, Szabo) reports that nearly “12% of high-school kids and 3% of middle schoolers had tried” e-cigarettes “at least once.” USA Today explains that children “are experimenting with a variety of tobacco products beyond cigarettes — from cigars to hookahs, chewing tobacco and pipes.” In fact, almost 23 percent “of high-school students use some sort of tobacco product, according to the CDC.” For instance, nearly 12 percent of high-school students smoke cigars, up slightly from 2011, the paper adds.

Related Links:

— “E-cigarette use triples among high schoolers,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, November 13, 2014.

Roll Call (11/14, Jenks) reports the National Institute of Mental Health “has decided to update its strategic plan.” With the last plan having been formulated in 2008, “the institute has decided that there has been substantial advances in mental health care since then and a new plan is in order. The public can comment on the new draft, which sets research priorities for the next five years.”

Related Links:

— “NIH Forges a Mental Health Research Plan,” Paul Jenks, Roll Call, November 13, 2014.

The New York Times (11/14, Bakalar) “Well” blog reports that according to a study published Nov. 13 in the Journal of Critical Sleep Medicine, “37 percent of” 7,000 firefighters tested “screened positive for at least one sleep disorder, most for obstructive sleep apnea.” After controlling for confounding factors, investigators “found that compared with sound sleepers, those with a sleep disorder were about twice as likely to have a motor vehicle crash, to nod off while driving, and to have cardiovascular disease or diabetes.” In addition, the firefighters faced a threefold higher risk of having anxiety and depression.

Related Links:

— “Firefighter Accidents Are Linked to Sleep Problems,” Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times, November 13, 2014.