At its February meeting, the Arizona Medical Board unanimously approved a new interpretation of the Arizona Revised Statutes regarding multiple, sequential prescriptions for the same Schedule II Controlled Substance.  This action means the Board will allow such prescriptions for up to 90 days.
 
William R. Martin III, M.D., of Phoenix, the Board Chair, stated that the Board should remain consistent with federal law, policies and guidelines.  Robert P. Goldfarb, M.D., F.A.C.S., of Tucson moved to conform the Board's interpretation with 21 C.F.R. 1306.12(b), regarding prescription writing and dating.  This interpretation aligns the Board's guidelines with a practice that is currently permitted by the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
 
If a physician provides multiple, sequential prescriptions to a patient that cannot be filled until a certain date, and yet are all accurately dated, the Arizona Medical Board will not consider this "pre-dating" or "post-dating."
 
For further information, contact Lisa Wynn, Executive Director of the Arizona Medical Board, at 480-551-2700.

The U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives have reached a tentative agreement on final provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The compromise bill would cost an estimated $789 billion, less than both the House and Senate-passed versions. Exact details are unavailable at this time, however a draft summary of the bill's health sections included provisions such as:

This economic recovery package provides an estimated $1.9 billion in additional federal Medicaid matching funds to support AHCCCS over the next two and a half years, provided the state does not reduce eligibility for the program. AzHHA encourages members to contact their state legislators to urge them to use those funds for their intended purpose-protecting healthcare services for vulnerable citizens who receive care in Arizona hospitals. This would prevent deeper cuts to AHCCCS hospital payments and have the added value of bolstering Arizona's economy.

To contact representatives and senators, log on to AzHHA's Web site at www.azhha.org and click on the Advocacy section for the phone numbers and e-mail addresses of lawmakers.

Researchers have determined that a molecule produced by the body's metabolism could be used to differentiate between benign prostate tissue vs. localized and metastatic prostate cancer. They also found that this molecule, known as sarcosine, may be associated with prostate cancer invasiveness and aggressiveness. The findings were reported by researchers at the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, Ann Arbor, and were supported by the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Early Detection Research Network (EDRN). The research appears in the Feb. 12, 2009 issue of Nature. NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health.

"Current biomarkers for detection or progression of prostate cancer are not as precise as we would like. Therefore, a more accurate indicator of cancer is of great interest," said Sudhir Srivastava, Ph.D., chief of NCI's Cancer Biomarkers Research Group. "Sarcosine and some other select metabolites may be excellent indicators of cancer progression."

Multiple complex molecular events characterize cancer development and progression. Determining which molecular networks dictate whether cancer will be confined to the prostate or spread to other parts of the body could lead to the identification of critical biomarkers associated with prostate cancer invasion and aggressiveness.

Although many genes and proteins related to cancer have been extensively characterized by genomic and proteomic studies, little is known about metabolomic changes that mark a tumor's progression. Metabolomics, upon which this current finding is based, is the study of the unique chemical fingerprints that cellular processes leave behind, which can help scientists understand the makeup of a cell. One of the challenges that scientists currently face is integrating genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic information to give a more complete picture of living organisms and the diseases that afflict them.

Investigators funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse have shown that the medication methylphenidate (Ritalin), which is commonly prescribed to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), can cause physical changes in neurons in reward regions of mouse brains-in some cases, these effects overlapped with those of cocaine.

Both methylphenidate and cocaine are in the class of drugs known as psychostimulants. While methylphenidate is widely prescribed, this study highlights the need for more research into its long-term effects on the brain. These research findings will be published Feb. 3 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Studies to date suggest that prescribed use of methylphenidate in patients with ADHD does not increase their risk for subsequent addiction. However non-medical use of methylphenidate and other stimulant medications, can lead to addiction as well as a variety of other health consequences," said NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow. "This study highlights the fact that we know very little about how methylphenidate affects the structure of and communication between brain cells."