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September 01, 2010
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF PART TWO
August 27, 2010
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF
August 25, 2010
HOW GOES THE HOUSING RECOVERY
August 23, 2010
DEATH GRIP OF DEBT
August 19, 2010
HOME EQUITY LOANS BECOMING UNCOLLECTIBLE
Personal Injury
Sometimes automobile or light truck accidents occur when there is only one car involved and no surviving witnesses to testify as to what happened or at least no other driver to testify as to what caused the accident. The victims of these accidents often do not pursue any claim because they assume there was no one at fault except the driver of the single vehicle involved in the accident. Occasionally though, there is a party at fault besides the driver.
The issues that surface in such cases involve the crashworthiness of the vehicle involved or sometimes the roadway itself. Regardless of what caused the accident there is a question of what caused the driver's injuries. Were the injuries caused by the accident itself or by a failed seat belt, collapsed roof, unsafe design, or some other such thing? These questions can even arise when the accident involves two or more vehicles and the injured person appears to be at fault in the accident.
Cases such as those I just described are expensive to investigate and litigate and in order to justify the out of pocket costs the injury must be severe, i.e. resulting in death or life changing injury such as paralysis, severed limb, etc.
If you or someone you know has been involved in such an accident, The Law Offices of Darrell L. Castle & Associates would like to investigate for possible crashworthiness issues. There is no charge for the consultation.
TARDIVE DYSKINESIA AND REGLAN
Posted by: Darrell Castle
January 26, 2010
Tardive Dyskinesia is an involuntary movement of muscles usually in the face characterized by grimacing, puckering, twitching, etc. The movements are chronic and often irreversible. Use of the drug Reglan, normally prescribed for acid reflux or for nausea, and also known as metoclopramide, has been associated with tardive dyskinesia.
In February, 2009 the FDA required that the manufacturers of Reglan add a warning, known as a black box warning, to their labels to warn Reglan users of the risk of tardive dyskinesia long term. Most people who experience tardive dyskinesia from Reglan use have taken the drug for longer than three months. Tardive dyskinesia is a very difficult disorder which usually continues long after Reglan use is discontinued.
Its symptoms include: involuntary, repetitive movements of the extremities; facial tics; lip smacking and pursing or puckering of the lips; facial grimacing; tongue protrusion; rapid eye movements and blinking; impaired movement of the fingers; restless leg syndrome. There is no apparent cure for these symptoms.
If you have taken Reglan and have any of the above listed symptoms, seek medical help and then legal help immediately. The Law Firm of Darrell Castle and Associates is currently investigating cases of Reglan caused tardive dyskinesia.
26 DIE AT PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
Posted by: Darrell Castle
January 20, 2010
Associated Press writer, Andrea Rodriguez, reported that the Cuban government said 26 patients at Cuba's largest hospital for the mentally ill died this past week during a cold snap. How does this happen in a tropical country where the temperature rarely falls below 50 degrees Fahrenheit? The recent prolonged cold weather across the eastern part of the United States also drove the temperature to 38 degrees in Boyeros, the neighborhood where Havana's Psychiatric Hospital is located.
The Cuban Commission on Human Rights head, Elizardo Sanchez, stated that so many patients dying of hypothermia was "absurd in a tropical country" and claimed the deaths could have been prevented if the government had granted requests to tour Cuba's 2500 bed mental hospital.
It is understandable that a tropical, sun drenched country such as Cuba doesn't have central heat in hospitals, but blankets could possibly have prevented the deaths. How expensive and how much trouble could it be to hand out a few blankets? The various international aid groups would probably have provided them for free. Cuba provides free health care to its citizens but it is plagued by shortages. Patients are expected to bring their own sheets and towels and sometimes food during hospital stays. That could prove difficult for mentally ill people to do. The Cuban government blames the shortages on the U.S. trade embargo, although the embargo does not include medicine or medical supplies.
In the United States, we have a system of government regulations to enforce guidelines of health and safety against nursing homes and hospitals. American facilities are covered by insurance companies which have a financial interest in the regulations being followed appropriately because they know that trial attorneys will investigate and litigate cases of abuse and neglect. Thank the trial lawyers of America for a large part of the safety of American hospitals and nursing homes.
God bless America and its health system.
NURSING HOMES, DRUG COMPANIES AND DOCTORS ARE THEY ALL IN IT TOGETHER
Posted by: Darrell Castle
January 18, 2010
The federal government has accused drug maker, Johnson and Johnson of paying kickbacks to a big nursing home pharmacy company to get the company to prescribe more of its drugs including the antipsychotic Risperdal. Quoting the New York Times; "The payments violated the federal anti-kickback statute and led Omnicare, a pharmacy company specializing in dispensing drugs to nursing home residents, to submit false claims to Medicaid, the complaint charged." According to Carmen M. Ortiz, United States Attorney for Massachusetts, "kickbacks in the nursing home pharmacy context are particularly nefarious." Senator Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging said, "nursing home residents comprise a vulnerable population that should be able to trust that their physician's advice is based on medical expertise, not financial self interest."
This is a very egregious accusation because for companies to bribe doctors to prescribe anti-psychotics to their most vulnerable patients is about as low as it gets. This is especially bad when the market capitalization of these drug companies is as high as it is now. Omnicare alone has a market cap of about 3.1 billion and serves more than 1.4 million residents of nursing homes, assisted living, and other health care facilities in 47 states and Canada, according to the company's own web site. Johnson and Johnson denied the allegations and said that it looks forward to defending its actions in court despite the fact that last November, Omnicare paid $98 million to settle civil charges by the government that it had violated the false Claims Act for engaging in kickback schemes with Johnson and Johnson and a smaller drug company.
Government regulations are designed to protect nursing home residents from medication such as being sedated with anti-psychotics for the sake of convenience or discipline. Nursing homes are required to arrange for an outside consulting pharmacist to review the medication regimen of patients at least once a month and the outside pharmacist has a duty to report any irregularities. The government's complaint raises the question of whether the drug companies used the consulting pharmacists for corporate gain. Johnson and Johnson is not the only one. Last January, the drug maker Eli Lilly pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and paid 1.415 billion to settle criminal and civil charges that it marketed its anti-psychotic Zyprexa for the treatment of elderly people with dementia.
Should you are a loved one become a resident of a nursing home, watch the medication very, very carefully and if you suspect or notice a problem, get legal advice.
DO HAPPY PILLS WORK
Posted by: Darrell Castle
January 12, 2010
A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania indicated that the antidepressants Paxil and imipramine work no better than placebos ("than sugar pills," said CNN) for people with mild to moderate depression. This study was widely reported by CNN and in an article by Judith Warner in the New York Times January 9, 2010. The headline said, "happy pills don't work," but Ms. Warner found that statement neither startling nor true. Experts have argued for years that antidepressants are over prescribed and over sold, but the New York Times has concluded that lost in the clutter of all the psychiatric hype and trickery is the true picture of mental health care in America.
The study actually concluded that antidepressants do work for very severely depressed people, as well as forthose whose mild depression is chronic. However, for those who are not truly depressed antidepressants do not work. People with short term minor depression tend to get better without treatment. Often just talking about it seems to help them. People who are depressed for the first time or who have suffered a temporary setback causing depression are not ideal candidates for drug therapy according to the researchers.
The conclusion of Ms. Warner's article is that the real culprit in the mental health problems of America is the system of treatment, or lack of treatment, as it exists. "The trouble is not that the drugs don't work; it's that the care is not very good." People with mental health problems tend to be undertreated or not treated at all. When they are treated it is usually by a general practitioner rather than a mental health specialist. According to the Times, the true picture of mental health care in America is not perfectly healthy people popping pills but mentally ill people not getting care.
I submit that the real interest of Judith Warner and the New York Times is revealed in the last sentence of the article. "With health care reform almost certainly on the horizon, perhaps now we can hope they will start asking." In other words, the New York Times wants us to believe that once the federal government has total control of our health care things will be so much better.
ARE TODDLERS REALLY PSYCHOTIC
Posted by: Darrell Castle
January 07, 2010
A new study reported January 4, 2010 in Business Week Magazine found that the rate of children aged 2 to 5 who are given antipsychotic medications has doubled in recent years. Researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University looked at data on more than 1 million children with private health insurance and were concerned because very little is known about the effectiveness or safety of such powerful psychiatric medications in children this age. Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia, said that prescribing antipsychotics to children ages 4 to 5 is justifiable only in rare intractable situations in which all other treatments including family and psychological therapy, have failed. It's questionable whether 2 and 3 year olds should ever be prescribed antipsychotics, Olfson said.
The study, which is published in the January issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, presumes that only children with the most severe mental problems would be given such potent drugs. Yet, the researchers noted that less than half of children on antipsychotics had received any mental health services, including a mental health assessment or treatment from a psychotherapist. Dr. Olfson raised the question of whether doctors had done everything they could to help the child before turning to medications.
Overall the relative numbers of children prescribed antipsychotics remains small but it is growing rapidly. In 1999 to 2001, about one in 1300 was being treated with antipsychotics. By 2007, that had risen to one in 630, according to Olfson. Children on Medicaid are even more likely than children with private insurance to be prescribed antipsychotics.
The most common antipsychotic drug prescribed was risperidone which is sold under the name Risperdal. Risperidone is used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and is approved by the FDA to treat unstable mood or irritability in children with autism aged 5 and up. Dr. Peter Jensen at the Mayo Clinic said that this trend is concerning. "We have no doubt there are prescribing practices out there that are very, very worrisome." Jensen went on to say that in his experience he had never to put a child of 2 or 3 on antipsychotics. "There is so much else that can be done."
