My Three Shrinks Podcast 28: Can You Hear Me Now?

[27] . . . [28] . . . [29] . . . [All]

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Sorry for the sound quality again this week. We were outside, and I really did put the mic closer to Clink and Dinah than to me. We'll try something a little different next time.


July 9, 2007: #28 Can You Hear Me Now?


Topics include:

• Panetti v. Quarterman. Clink talks about a hot-off-the-press, landmark Supreme Court case about competency to be executed and death penalty cases for people with mental illness. She also refers to the Ford v. Wainwright case. "It's a hint that, down the road, we will probably not have a death penalty for mentally ill people, just like we no longer have a death penalty for juveniles or mentally retarded people."
  
  
• Dinah goes back to Podcast #27 and refers to Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison's book, An Unquiet Mind, talking about therapists' disclosure to patients about their own mental health issues (which was blogged about here).
  
  
• On Being a Female Intern. Clink rants against DrCrippen's (NHS Blog Doctor) rant about part-time doctors (mostly mothers): DrC: "You need to grow up a little. You can’t expect to pop into the hospital to do occasional clinics at a time of your own choosing in between school runs, parent-teachers association meetings and back packing holidays. Life is not like that. Being a hospital consultant requires commitment, dedication and long hours. There is generous provision for paid maternity leave. What more do you want? ... If you won’t do the hours, you can’t have job... Just because you are a girlie, you can’t expect medical training to be turned on its head."
  
  
• Physician Stress & Burnout. This discussion transitions into talk of a 2004 article (IC McManus, et al.) on physician stress and burnout, finding that the consequences of physician training stress has more to do with how one handles stress in general.
• iPhone Apathy. Roy mentions his iPhone post. Who cares?
  
  
• iTunes Reviews. Clink asks our listeners to do more reviews of our podcast, and we offer to mention the next 3 reviewers (good or bad) on our next podcast (whoopee!).
  
  
• Sex Change Operations in Prison?. Clink talks about a recent case of many thousands of dollars being spent litigating a case of a prisoner requesting a sex change operation.
  
  
• Pristiq. Desvenlafaxine (a metabolite of Effexor or venlafaxine) is up for final approval at the FDA (I misspoke in the podcast... Pristiq is not an extended release of Effexor, but rather a metabolite of it).
  

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Find show notes with links at: http://mythreeshrinks.com/. The address to send us your Q&A's is there, as well. This podcast is available on iTunes (feel free to post a review) or as an RSS feed. You can also listen to or download the .mp3 or the MPEG-4 file from mythreeshrinks.com. Thank you for listening.

FDA Drugs: January 2007

2007: Mar | Feb | Jan . . . 2006: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sep

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FDA Drugs: January 2007

• Vynase (now Vyvanse) gets approvable letter: New River Pharm and Shire are poised to release a new ADHD drug, lisdexamfetamine (was NRP-104).
• Generic Wellbutrin XL approved: by Anchen Pharma.
• Wellbutrin Package Insert was modified: to reflect the following additional info regarding its use in people with renal failure: "An inter-study comparison between normal subjects and patients with end-stage renal failure demonstrated that the parent drug Cmax and AUC values were comparable in the 2 groups, whereas the hydroxybupropion and threohydrobupropion metabolites had a 2.3- and 2.8-fold increase, respectively, in AUC for patients with end-stage renal failure." Also added was mention of double vision and increased intraocular pressure as reported adverse reactions.
  
• FDA releases Guidance on Pharmacogenetic data. The FDA released definitions for genomic biomarkers, pharmacogenomics, and pharmacogenetics.
• Alexza is working on Schizophrenia Agitation drug: The drug is an inhaled form of loxapine, a typical antipsychotic.
• New Antidepressant: Pristiq. Wyeth, who makes Effexor XR (venlafaxine), received an approvable letter for Pristiq (desvenlafaxine succinate), which is a metabolic derivative of Effexor; both drugs are serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). Approvable letters have conditions which must be met before the product can be marketed. The Wyeth facility in Puerto Rico must pass FDA's muster, and the marketing plan must be approved, prior to its release for the Major Depression indication. Wyeth is also going after an indication for Vaso-Motor Symptoms (VMS) related to menopause ("hot flashes" in English).