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oday, Hart continues to challenge status quo assumptions about the frequency of addiction and how drug use affects people. He’s even held Eric Holder to task for calling heroin use in the country “an epidemic.” Instead, Hart argues that the number of true addicts is much smaller, and when addiction does occur, it’s often because of environmental factors, rather than hardwired doom in the brain. His conclusion: Much of what we’ve been taught about drugs is wrong. With more than $40 billion being spent on anti-drug efforts a year, it’s not a message that many people want to hear. But when mass incarceration, often for misdemeanor drug possession charges, affects communities of color so deeply that health studies can’t conduct statistically sound surveys on the population not in prison, it’s a message that could disrupt the social order. We spoke to Hart about how he reached his conclusions and what it takes to speak truth to power in the scientific community.

After months of Americans being unable to fill their drug prescriptions for medications that are commonly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday that the shortages are expected to end this month.

Are current drug policies failing? According to Dr. Hart's book, yes. He explains why with his landmark, yet controversial studies of race, poverty,, and drugs as well as the relationship between drugs and pleasure, choice, and motivation, both in the brain and in society. Hart relates his own story that started in a tough Miami neighborhood and resulted in a career as a neuroscientist and Columbia University's first tenured African American professor in the sciences.

MK-869 wasn't the only highly anticipated medical breakthrough to be undone in recent years by the placebo effect. From 2001 to 2006, the percentage of new products cut from development after Phase II clinical trials, when drugs are first tested against placebo, rose by 20 percent. The failure rate in more extensive Phase III trials increased by 11 percent, mainly due to surprisingly poor showings against placebo. Despite historic levels of industry investment in R&D, the US Food and Drug Administration approved only 19 first-of-their-kind remedies in 2007—the fewest since 1983—and just 24 in 2008. Half of all drugs that fail in late-stage trials drop out of the pipeline due to their inability to beat sugar pills.

what’s the advantage of aerosol medicines?Many drugs that used to be administered as a high dose pill, or by IV injection, are now available as aerosols.  Inhaled medications include corticosteroids to treat patients with asthma and antibiotics to treat patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). By delivering these drugs directly to the lungs as an aerosol, we are able to bypass delivery into the systemic circulation, which allows us to give lower doses and reduce unwanted side-effects. Other drugs, such as bronchodilators and hypertonic saline, also benefit from this route of administration.

While medication is often used to treat children with autism, “strikingly little evidence” exists to support the approach, researchers said Monday. That’s the conclusion of an analysis published online in the journal Pediatrics looking at 10-years worth of studies on the effectiveness of antipsychotics and other drugs in treating children with autism.

A product promoted to parents of children with autism is not a harmless dietary supplement, as claimed, but a toxic unapproved drug that lacks adequate warnings about potential side effects, including hair loss and abnormalities of the pancreas, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned in a letter to its maker.

Besides taking many pills, the boy was injected with vitamin B12 and received intravenous infusions of a drug used to leach mercury and other metals from the body. He took megadoses of vitamin C, a hormone and a drug that suppresses testosterone. This complex treatment regimen -- documented in court records as part of a bitter custody battle between Coman, who opposes the therapies, and his wife -- may sound unusual, but it isn't. Thousands of U.S. children undergo these therapies and many more at the urging of physicians who say they can successfully treat, or "recover," children with autism, a disorder most physicians and scientists say they cannot yet explain or cure. But after reviewing thousands of pages of court documents and scientific studies and interviewing top researchers in the field, the Tribune found that many of these treatments amount to uncontrolled experiments on vulnerable children.

Each year the Annie E. Casey Foundation funds a national survey of child well-being. The new report was recently released. Montana is again ranked 28th, same as last year.The data is analyzed in four different categories: education, economic well-being, family and community and health.Montana was above average in three of the four categories, but finished 50th in child health.The report shows that Montana improved in economic well-being, up to 15th from 20th last year. We held steady on education at 13th. We declined a bit on family and community, down to 14th from 13th.But it’s the child health numbers that seem to be the greatest cause for concern.If you dig into the health numbers, Montana did improve over last year’s report in having fewer uninsured kids — down to 12 percent — and fewer teens abusing alcohol and drugs — down to 10 percent. However, we have increased our percentage of children with low birth weights — 7.5 percent — and increased the number of child and teen deaths per 100,000 — 45.How do we make sense of this data? It’s hard because for many of us these kinds of statistics don’t mean a lot when you pull them apart. As a state, Montana’s 28th place ranking is the lowest in the region. North Dakota ranks sixth, Wyoming ranks 15th, South Dakota ranks 18th, and Idaho ranks 20th.What the report tells us about child health is we have more work to do. It may seem like 88 percent of children being covered by health insurance is pretty good, but we’re average for the region. Similar to Idaho and Wyoming, but lower than both Dakotas.For teen death rates, we’re highest in the region at 45 per 100,000. Idaho is at 28, Wyoming at 32, North Dakota at 34 and South Dakota 39.In general what this means is in Montana we can do a better job, in this areas, of improving the health of our kids. The good news is that health continues to be a priority of the Gov. Steve Bullock’s administration, which launched an initiative last week called “A Healthier Montana: A Plan to Improve the Health of Montanans.”Bullock’s plan focuses on six areas: Preventing, identifying and managing chronic diseases; promoting the health of mothers, infants and children; preventing, identifying and controlling communicable disease, preventing injuries and reducing exposure to environmental health hazards; improving mental health and reducing substance abuse; and, strengthening Montana’s public health and health care system.Reports like Kids Count, are one of many analyzing different aspects of health in Montana and around the country, said Jon Ebelt, spokesman for the Montana Department of Health and Human Services. Typically, those reports only tell part of the story. And though the state takes the Kids Count report seriously, it fit into the broader look of health in Montana now outlined in Bullock’s initiative.“We’ve done a lot of work the last year to set the priorities on where we can make the most difference,” Ebelt said.At Lewis and Clark County, county health officer Melanie Reynolds is also focused on local work.The county has been working for a number of months on their community health improvement plan and is looking to unveil soon.So while the news from Kids Count was mixed, we’re pleased the state and local governments are continuing their efforts to support better health for Montanans. We anticipate these efforts will show themselves with an improved report next year.

What:The National Medicare Training Program is pleased to announce the next Understanding Medicare webinar will be held on March 6 and 7, 2012.   This webinar, which is designed for people who are new to Medicare, and for people wanting a refresher, will provide current, accurate, consistent information on Medicare, including hospital (Part A) coverage, medical (Part B) coverage, Medicare Advantage plans (Part C), and prescription drug (Part D) coverage.  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is authorized by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) to offer 0.4 Continuing Education Units (CEU) for this program.   To receive CEU credit participants must: Complete the pre-assessment Attend all four hours of the training Complete the course registration and evaluation Complete the post-test with an aggregate score of at least 70%. When:March 6-7, 201211:00 am - 1:00 pm MTContact:Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Phone: (410) 786-5473Website: Medicare.govRegistration:Click this link to register! Please complete the registration form and select a password that is 8 characters long and contains one capital letter and a numeric digit. If you have previously attended a webinar with us please select “click here” at the top of the page. You will be redirected and asked to enter your login (your email address) and password. If you do not remember you password, please click “Forgot your password?” You will receive an e-mail confirming your registration and providing the link to the webinar pre-assessment. Space is limited, and only approved participants will receive instructions on how to register. The pre-assessment must be completed prior to the start of the webinar. You will not be able to participate in the webinar if you have not completed the pre-assessment.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced the approval of the Esteem – an implanted hearing system used to treat moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss, a type of permanent hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss is usually caused by genetic factors or damage to the inner ear resulting from noise, viral infections, or aging. The results are reductions in perception of sounds and in the ability to understand speech.