Dear U.S. Medicine Reader,

This month’s issue of U.S. Medicine brings coverage on the ongoing relief efforts provided by the US military in Haiti, reporting on the recent dialogue held on suicide prevention and the latest efforts to offer online counseling from the VA and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Also, take a look at our special section, Literature Review, which includes highlights from peer-reviews and clinical trials in the areas of psychiatry and oncology.

Ken Senerth
Editor, U. S. Medicine

LATE BREAKING NEWS

BMJ Retracts Autism Study.  A study linking vaccines with autism has been retracted by the British Medical Journal according to recent reports. The study, conducted in 1998, associated a measles/mumps/rubella vaccine with autism. The preservative thimerosal, which contains mercury, was central to the association. According to a 2008 study in Pediatrics, as many as 2.1% of US children were not vaccinated, up significantly from 1995, based on the conclusions in the original Lancet article. The Lancet chose to issue a complete retraction after an independent regulator for doctors in the UK concluded that the study was flawed.

Plan B One-Step Now Available World Wide
As reported on many news outlets, military health facilities around the world will now carry the emergency contraception pill known as Plan B One-Step, according to a new DoD policy.

The decision to carry the pill was based on a recommendation by the Pentagon's Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. Many military hospitals already carried the pill, but now it will be a standard part of every medical facility's stock of drugs. In response to reporter queries, as reported by CNN, Pentagon spokesman Col David Lapan said the decision was not prompted by any direction from the administration or the Secretary of Defense. A similar recommendation was made by the panel in 2002, but the military did not create a policy at the time, according to the Washington Post. The decision comes 2 months after a commander in Iraq attempted to enforce a clause in his code of conduct that would have made getting pregnant while deployed there -- or being responsible for getting a servicewoman pregnant -- a punishable offense. Currently policy is that any woman who learns she is pregnant while in the war zone is immediately removed and sent back to the United States.

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Diabetes Drug Linked to Heart Disease
According to a recent Senate report, concerns continue about diabetes drug Avandia’s link to heart attacks. The FDA is trying to assemble a timeline of what FDA knew of associated risks, and convene a meeting of an outside advisory committee to review recent information on the drug.  According to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, “The FDA takes very seriously concerns and issues raised in the recent inquiry.” Avandia remains on the market, but with a stronger warning label regarding cardiac risks.