Advance Directives Allow Patients With Mental Illness To Shape Their Own Care Before They’re Too Sick To Do So
While some doctors worry the documents could limit treatments, they are legal in 27 states and “could be a very important tool to minimize hospitalization and minimize involuntary commitment,” said Cherene Allen-Caraco, chief executive officer of Promise Resource Network. Other public health news focuses on loss of parental rights, ADHD diagnoses, rare diseases, 5G wireless safety, shingles vaccine shortage, personalized cancer medicine, Apple watches and more.
The New York Times:
Giving Patients A Voice In Their Mental Health Care Before They’re Too Ill To Have A Say
Steve Singer, who has bipolar and borderline personality disorders, knows when he’s on the verge of a mental health crisis. The female voice he hears incessantly in his head suddenly shuts up, and the hula hoop he gyrates while walking to the grocery store stops easing his anxieties. That’s when he gets to a hospital. Usually, talking briefly with a nurse or social worker calms him enough to return home. But this year a hospital placed him on a locked ward, took his phone, and had an armed guard watch him for 20 hours before a social worker spoke with him and released him. (Belluck, 12/3)
The Washington Post:
Parenthood Lost: How Incarcerated Parents Are Losing Their Children Forever
Lori Lynn Adams was a mother of four living in poverty when Hurricane Floyd struck North Carolina in 1999, flooding her trailer home and destroying her children’s pageant trophies and baby pictures. No stranger to moneymaking scams, Adams was convicted of filing a fraudulent disaster-relief claim with FEMA for a property she did not own. She also passed dozens of worthless checks to get by. Adams served two year-long prison stints for these “blue-collar white-collar crimes,” as she calls them. Halfway through her second sentence, with her children — three toddlers and a 14-year-old — temporarily under county supervision, Adams said she got a phone call from a family court attorney. Her parental rights, he informed her, were being irrevocably terminated. (Hager and Flagg, 12/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
A Reason To Think Twice About Your Child’s ADHD Diagnosis
Diagnosing attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is inherently subjective. New research highlights how this can get especially tricky with young children. It shows that ADHD rates are significantly higher among children who are the youngest in their class compared with those who are the oldest. ADHD is characterized by difficulty concentrating and constantly active, sometimes disruptive behavior. (Reddy, 12/3)
KQED:
Medical Detectives: The Last Hope For Families Coping With Rare Diseases
All over the country, specialized strike teams of doctors are giving hope to families who are desperately searching for a diagnosis. The medical sleuths have cracked more than a third of the 382 patient cases they're pursuing, according to a recent paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. The specialists, scattered across 12 clinics nationwide, form the Undiagnosed Disease Network (UDN). Since the program began in 2014 they've identified 31 previously unknown syndromes. (McClurg, 12/3)
The CT Mirror:
Blumenthal Wants FCC To Prove 5G Wireless Technology Is Safe
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is leading a campaign to determine whether new “5G” wireless technology is safe and is asking the federal government for proof the cutting edge radiofrequency does not pose health risks – including cancer. ...Blumenthal said 5G technology “is a vast improvement” over the 2G and 3G radio waves that allow wireless devices like cell phones and computers to operate. (Radelat, 12/3)
Boston Globe:
Frustration Mounts Over Waits For Shingles Vaccine
The Metro Minute’s recent primer on the causes and symptoms of shingles prompted e-mails from over a dozen local readers who expressed frustration about long waits to be vaccinated for the often painful condition. The vaccine, Shingrix, has been so popular that clinics and pharmacies are having trouble keeping it in stock. (Fernandez, 12/3)
Boston Globe:
Cambridge Biotech's Cancer Test Turns Out To Be A ‘Lifesaver’
Then scientists at Foundation Medicine, a Cambridge biotech, ran a new diagnostic test to sequence the DNA of cancer cells in his prostate gland, which had been surgically removed. The bad news was that he had a rare form of the disease, marked by an extraordinary number of genetic changes in the cancerous cells. The good news: The new test showed that he might respond to any of three new immunotherapy drugs. (Saltzman, 12/4)
PBS NewsHour:
Why The U.S. Ban On Female Genital Mutilation Was Ruled Unconstitutional
In his 28-page decision, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman said Congress “overstepped its bounds” in prohibiting the practice in 1996, adding that FGM is a “’local criminal activity’ which, in keeping with long-standing tradition and our federal system of government, is for the states to regulate, not Congress.” The judge’s decision voided the charges of FGM and conspiracy against two Michigan doctors accused of cutting at least nine minor girls in a Detroit clinic: Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, the Michigan physician accused of performing FGM on the girls, and Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, who was accused of allowing Nagarwala use his clinic for the procedures. (Thoet, 12/3)
The Associated Press:
WHO Says It Can Fight Ebola Outbreak Despite US Withdrawal
The head of the World Health Organization said Monday it can fight the deadly Ebola outbreak in Congo despite the withdrawal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, insisting: "We can cover it." The comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus came in the wake of commentaries in two medical journals appealing to the CDC to return to the epidemic zone in Congo — saying its expertise is needed. The U.S. experts have been sidelined for weeks, ordered away from the region because of State Department security concerns. (12/3)
Kaiser Health News:
In Grandma’s Stocking: An Apple Watch To Monitor Falls, Track Heart Rhythms
For more than a decade, the latest Apple products have been the annual must-have holiday gift for the tech-savvy. That raises the question: Is the newest Apple Watch on your list — either to give or receive — this year? At first glance, the watch appears to be an ideal present for Apple’s most familiar market: the hip early adopters. Its promotional website is full of svelte young people stretching into yoga poses, kickboxing and playing basketball. (Bluth, 12/4)
