There is a frenzied push by mental health providers--almost all of whom have financial ties to psychotropic drug manufacturers--to persuade government to adopt a policy of screening teenagers and women for depression.

The women being targeted at this juncture are vulnerable: they are either pregnant or have just given birth to a child. In both cases, both mother and infant are at risk of being harmed by pharmacological interventions.

The problem with mental screening starts with the fact that the method for mental screening is an unreliable suggestive questionnaire which is noted for its high rate (84%) for misidentifying normal teens as having mental disorders.

The diagnostic tools used by psychiatrists remain subjective and unscientific. And, overwhelmingly, the "therapeutic" interventions prescribed are dangerous psychotropic drugs that have often aggravated an emotional problem. Indeed, antidepressants increase the risk of suicide--as these drugs' warning labels indicate.

Schools should not be turned into medical fishing terminals; it is devastating for any child to be labeled as having a mental illness as such a label opens the child to a life of stigmatization, discrimination and undesirable status.

When the "diagnosis" is false, a crime has been committed: who will assume responsibility for such a child's derailed life and shattered dream of becoming President?

The proponents of screening are disingenuous as they pretend that non-pharmacological therapies are widely available--they are not, especially for the non-wealthy.

Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) cells are present in the majority of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), aplastic anemia (AA), and other bone marrow failure syndromes (BMF), according to interim results from 5,285 patients enrolled in the EXPLORE trial. EXPLORE (EXamination of PNH, by Level Of CD59 on REd and white blood cells) is the first large multicenter study to determine the frequency of PNH cells in these patient populations using a central laboratory conducting a high sensitivity test for PNH cells. The findings from EXPLORE will be presented tomorrow at the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The EXPLORE trial was sponsored by Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:ALXN).

PNH cells are defined as blood stem cells lacking certain proteins, known as GPI-anchored proteins, which include proteins that ordinarily protect blood cells from destruction by complement, a component of the normal immune system. The lack of these complement inhibitors results in the hemolysis (red blood cell destruction) that characterizes PNH, an ultra-rare, debilitating and life-threatening disease.

"The true prevalence of PNH cells in patients with a number of bone marrow failure syndromes has been unclear due to variability in PNH testing. Interim results from the EXPLORE trial show that PNH cells are common in these patients," said Azra Raza, M.D., Director, MDS Program, St. Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center, New York. "These results show that high sensitivity testing may help physicians detect undiagnosed PNH in patients with bone marrow failure disorders, and identify those patients with bone marrow failure who may be more likely to respond to immunosuppressive therapy."

Interim results from the EXPLORE trial are based on 5,285 patients with evidence of bone marrow failure, including 4,433 with MDS, 451 with AA, and 351 with other bone marrow failure syndromes (including patients with more than one diagnosis). To eliminate variability in the detection and reporting of PNH cell populations, a central laboratory employed a commercially available high-sensitivity flow cytometry test to identify GPI anchor-deficient PNH red blood cells and white blood cells, resulting in 0.01% sensitivity. Interim results are as follows:

- PNH cells were present in 70% of patients with AA, 55% of patients with MDS, and 55% of patients with other BMF syndromes when tested at a sensitivity of 0.01% PNH cells.

- PNH clones of clinical significance (≥1% of white blood cells) were found in 25% of patients with AA (113 of 451), 1% of patients with MDS (54 of 4,433) and 5% of patients with other BMF syndromes (16 of 351).

- Among patients with PNH clones of clinical significance, elevated levels of hemolysis, or red blood cell destruction, were evident in 38% of patients with AA, 44% of patients with MDS, and 69% of patients with other BMF syndromes. In PNH, excessive hemolysis can lead to thrombosis, pulmonary hypertension, kidney failure, pain and fatigue in affected patients.

- Most patients who tested positive had smaller populations of PNH cells (< 1% of white blood cells), demonstrating the need to test patients using flow cytometry with sufficiently high sensitivity capable of detecting these abnormal cells.

- PNH cells were identified in patients with all subtypes of MDS as well as in patients with both severe and non-severe aplastic anemia, supporting the clinical importance of testing all MDS and AA patients.

Surgical Review Corporation (SRC), an independent, non-profit organization that advances the efficacy, efficiency and safety of bariatric and metabolic surgery, announced that the number of registered patients entered into its Bariatric Outcomes Longitudinal Database™ (BOLD™) has now surpassed 120,000. BOLD, the world's largest dedicated repository of bariatric surgery patient information, provides the mechanism for identifying risk factors and quality indicators, developing risk stratification guidelines, and enabling continuous quality improvement for bariatric surgery.

All participants in the Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence® (BSCOE®) program, which SRC administers on behalf of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, are required to enter information into BOLD for every bariatric surgical procedure and patient encounter, including complications and comorbidities.

"Nearly 900 surgeons and more than 500 hospitals are now entering data into BOLD," said Neil Hutcher, M.D., FACS, Chairman of the SRC Board of Directors and a practicing BSCOE bariatric surgeon in Richmond, Va. "I'm also pleased to announce that 100 percent of BSCOE designees are BOLD users. A remarkable accomplishment when compared to a recent study reporting that only 7.6 percent of U.S. hospitals use an electronic health record. This level of participation demonstrates that bariatric surgeons are truly dedicated to determining the best care for their patients."

In June, SRC will provide aggregate benchmark data to BOLD users so that they can compare their own data to the entire research dataset. The organization also plans to publish national aggregate data reports, establishing a basis for best practices.

Older adults with low scores on tests of cognitive function, including thinking, learning and memory appear more likely to have the early stages of the eye disease age-related macular degeneration, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD)-the leading cause of visual impairment in industrialized nations-has long been thought to share a common pathway with Alzheimer's disease, according to background information in the article. First, both conditions involve similar changes in the brain and eye, including the buildup of protein fragments known as beta-amyloid. "Second, clinical studies suggest that AMD and Alzheimer's disease share similar vascular risk factors, such as hypertension [high blood pressure] and cigarette smoking," the authors write. "Both AMD and Alzheimer's disease have been linked to an increased risk of stroke."

Michelle L. Baker, M.D., of the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and colleagues assessed 2,088 individuals age 69 to 97. Participants underwent cognitive testing, retinal photography for the detection of AMD and an extensive assessment of artery disease and its risk factors (including blood pressure, smoking status and body mass index).

After controlling for age, sex, race and the center at which they participated in the study, the one-fourth of individuals with the lowest scores on one cognitive test were twice as likely to have early-stage AMD as were individuals with higher scores. However, there was no association between AMD and scores on a second cognitive test, dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Pregnant women with low levels of vitamin D may be more likely to suffer from bacterial vaginosis (BV) - a common vaginal infection that increases a woman's risk for preterm delivery, according to a University of Pittsburgh study. Available online and published in the June issue of The Journal of Nutrition, the study may explain why African-American women, who often lack adequate vitamin D, are three times more likely than white women to develop BV.

"Bacterial vaginosis affects nearly one in three reproductive-aged women, so there is great need to understand how it can be prevented," said Lisa M. Bodnar, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., assistant professor of epidemiology, obstetrics and gynecology, University of Pittsburgh. "It is not only associated with a number of gynecologic conditions, but also may contribute to premature delivery - the leading cause of neonatal mortality - making it of particular concern to pregnant women."

The study, which included 469 pregnant women, sought to determine whether poor vitamin D status played a role in predisposing women, especially African-Americans, to BV. Dr. Bodnar and colleagues at Magee-Womens Research Institute found that 41 percent of the study participants had BV and of these, 93 percent had insufficient levels of vitamin D. They also found that the prevalence of BV decreased as vitamin D levels rose.

Vitamin D may play a role in BV by regulating the production and function of antimicrobial molecules, which in turn may help the immune system prevent and control bacterial infection. However, only about one in four Americans gets enough vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency may be more common in African-Americans because dark pigmentation limits the amount of vitamin D that can be made in the skin through casual exposure to sunlight. African-American women also are less likely to meet dietary recommendations of vitamin D.