Links to summaries at the Kaisernetwork,The Body, and
other news sources as well as the HIV/STD/TB Prevention
News Update (below).
(Note links to Kaisernetwork, The Body and other sources take you out of this site. You will have to hit your browser's
<back button to return.) See also Medical Briefs
and Care Resources in the Care
Section
Michigan News
Updated User Friendly Manual for PWAs in Detroit EMA
View the December 2009 User
Friendly Manual at the CHAG website. We have added a lot of new information.
If you are listed in the manual you will receive a CD version in the mail in
early January. A limited number of print versions will be available for 3 ring
binders you may already have in your agency, and spiral bound versions will be
available for clients.
National News
"Safety Risk Associated with HIV Drug"
United Press International , (02.01.2010)
A rare but serious liver disorder has been reported in some patients taking the
HIV drug Videx (didanosine) and its delayed-release formulation, Videx EC, the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Monday.
FDA said 42 cases of non-cirrhotic portal hypertension have been reported in
patients taking Videx/Videx EC during an 18-year period. “Non-cirrhotic portal
hypertension occurs when blood flow in the portal vein, a major vein in the
liver, slows down and leads to severely enlarged veins in the esophagus. These
enlarged veins, called esophageal varices, are thin and can break open,
resulting in serious, and potentially fatal, bleeding,” FDA said. The condition
has led to the death of four patients.
Marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Videx, an antiretroviral, was approved by FDA
in 1991 and is taken in combination with other HIV drugs. In its latest
statement, FDA said the drug’s clinical benefits in some patients continue to
outweigh its potential safety risks. The labels of Videx/Videx EC have been
revised to warn providers and patients about symptoms of the liver disorder.
"AIDS and Depression: Ohio University Tests HIV Phone Therapy"
Columbus Dispatch , (01.17.2010) Mary Beth Lane CDC NPIN Summary
Can depressed HIV/AIDS patients in rural settings benefit from weekly
psychotherapy sessions by telephone? An Ohio University professor of geriatric
medicine/gerontology hopes his new study will answer that question.
"Telephone-administered psychotherapy has been used before to reduce depression,
but it's never been tested with rural people living with HIV who are also
diagnosed with depression," said Timothy Heckman, whose four-year project is
supported by a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
The patients who comprise the target population face different challenges than
HIV patients in urban settings. "The isolation, the limited access to medical
and mental health services, fewer employment opportunities, more financial
difficulties, issues of stigma and discrimination - a wide variety of issues,"
said Heckman, who directs the university's Center for Telemedicine Research and
Interventions.
The research will recruit 180 participants from rural counties of 20,000 people
or less across the United States. Half the subjects will receive standard care
for depression, which could include antidepressants, support groups, and
community therapy. The other half will receive standard care plus calls from
licensed psychologists who will administer interpersonal psychotherapy.
"Ultimately, if interpersonal psychotherapy is shown to be helpful, we hope AIDS
service organizations can provide [it] for many HIV-infected people living in
the rural community, moving it from the research arena to community settings,"
Heckman said.
Advocates are hopeful the approach succeeds, particularly given that funding
shortfalls have led to a scarcity of mental health services in rural Ohio and
elsewhere.
"Merck Won't Seek FDA Approval for HIV Drug"
Wall Street Journal , (01.20.2010) Peter Loftus
Merck & Co. has decided not to seek Food and Drug Administration approval of its
experimental HIV drug vicriviroc, according to a posting Wednesday on the
company’s Web site. The drug, which was being studied in treatment-experienced
HIV-positive patients, "did not meet the primary efficacy endpoint" in two
late-stage trials, Merck said. The studies enrolled a high percentage of
patients who had three or more active drugs in their "optimized background
therapy regimen," said Merck, which will present the results next month at a
medical conference. Vicriviroc - like Pfizer Inc.'s Selzentry, which has been on
the market since 2007 - is a CCR5 co-antagonist designed to prevent HIV from
entering uninfected cells. Going forward, Merck said it will provide vicriviroc
to treatment-experienced participants who benefited from it, and it will
continue to study the drug in treatment-naïve patients.
DHHS Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines
for Adult and Adolescents Announces New Panel Members
The DHHS Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and
Adolescents (a Working Group of the Office of AIDS Research
Advisory Council) is pleased to welcome five new members to the
Panel. See
The quarterly biopsychosocial research update on HIV and mental
health, mental health AIDS, is sponsored by the Center for
Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA) and is disseminated free-of-charge
through the SAMHSA Web site in both PDF and HTML formats.
The Winter 2010 issue features the Toolbox "Lending an Existential
Ear to the Elemental Issues in HIV-Related Therapy."
"Existential psychotherapy is grounded in 'a theoretical framework
that concerns itself with articulating the fundamental dimensions,
meanings, and dilemmas of human existence.' This framework is
'especially well suited to the work of psychotherapy with individuals
living with HIV disease' and 'can inform any number of techniques,
including those drawn from a cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, or
psychodynamic approach.' This tool box centers on several studies that
were existential in focus and conducted largely among people of color
living with HIV. These studies are bracketed by an applied understanding
of the theory and practice of existential psychotherapy in the context
of HIV disease."
