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More Support Needed For Families Adopting From Foster Care
A new University of Illinois study of families adopting from foster care revealed significant declines in professional services and social support over the first three years of adoptive family life, even though parents indicated that they need continued assistance.
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AAKP Meets With Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services Regarding Passage Of Mippa And Chronic Kidney Disease Education
On Tuesday, May 26, 2009, the American Association of Kidney Patients" (AAKP) Executive Director Kim Buettner and members of the AAKP Board of Directors met with staff members of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the passage of the Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) on chronic kidney disease (CKD) education. MIPPA provides for Medicare coverage of up to six sessions of education for individuals with CKD in stage 4. The education includes instructions on the management of co-morbidities, with the goal of delaying the need for dialysis and discussion on the treatment options available to patients for renal replacement therapy.
News of the day
Lawmakers Address Nurse And Primary Care Physician Shortages
A pending House bill would aim to address the nursing shortage by allowing "20,000 additional nurses to enter the U.S. each year for the next three years as a temporary measure to fill the gap," Business Week reports. The bill was introduced by Representative Robert Wexler, D-Fla., in May. If it doesn"t "pass on its own, lawmakers may include it in a comprehensive immigration reform package." Hospital administrators in some areas that face nursing shortages support the bill as "temporary relief," but "Wexler"s bill is opposed by labor unions, whose leaders say it would undermine efforts to produce a steady domestic workforce while sapping other nations" nurses. [President Barack] Obama has also expressed skepticism about the idea that the U.S. needs to import nurses, in particular because the U.S. unemployment rate continues to rise." Instead, Obama has said, the focus should be on improving the res to fund education for new American-born nurses. "The $787 billion economic stimulus bill included $500 million to address shortages of health workers in the U.S., with about $100 million to promote nursing and increase capacity at U.S. nurse-training schools."
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'Awakenings' That Occur With Popular Sleep-Aid Ambien May Be Explained By GUMC Study

Some people who take the fast-acting sleep-aid zolpidem (Ambien) have been observed walking, eating, talking on the phone and even driving while not fully awake. Many often don"t remember doing any of these activities the next morning. Similarly, this drug has been shown to awaken the minimally conscious into a conscious state. A new study by Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) researchers may help explain why these "awakenings" occur. The study, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Monday, suggests that while some powerful brain circuits are shut down with zolpidem, the powerful sedative activates other circuits when deprived of activity. "Brain cells or neurons are highly reactive to incoming activity throughout life," explains Molly M. Huntsman, an assistant professor in the department of pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center and corresponding author for the study. "When brain activity is silenced, many neurons automatically react to this change. We see this in our study which suggests that inhibitory neurons responsible for stopping neural activity are themselves shut down by zolpidem. The excitatory neurons, responsible for transmitting activity, are then allowed to re-awaken and become active again, without monitoring because the inhibitory neurons are "asleep"." Rodents are especially dependent upon their whiskers to explore their environment; for the study, researchers trimmed the whiskers of mice (while under anesthesia). They then studied the region of the brain responsive to whisker movements to examine activity-dependent brain circuits. After removing the whiskers and depriving neural activity, the inhibitory neurons that normally don"t respond to sedation by zolpidem underwent a change, becoming more sensitive. The researchers posited that these neurons are shut down and, in turn, not able to monitor other brain circuits. "This was really unexpected. It appears the receptors on some inhibitory neurons were changed and were able to be inhibited by zolpidem, preventing them from performing their normal functions. We merely wanted to use zolpidem as a tool to examine which type of functional inhibitory receptor is expressed in certain neurons. Yet it turns out that sensory deprivation in the form of whisker trimming is enough to alter the receptor composition expressed in these cells." Huntsman says. Researchers say that while the study suggests that zolpidem shuts down active neural pathways and perhaps then triggers others, the activation of this trigger is unknown. "Nevertheless, the paradoxical activation of brain circuits by a powerful sedative definitely needs more attention in additional studies both human and in animal models," Huntsman concludes. Other authors of the paper include Peijun Li of GUMC and Uwe Rudolph of McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. The authors report no related financial interests. This work was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. Karen Mallet Georgetown University Medical Center


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