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Appeals Court Panel Says Pharmacists Must Distribute Emergency Contraception Under Washington State Regulation
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Wednesday unanimously ruled to lift an injunction blocking Washington state officials from penalizing pharmacists who refused to dispense the emergency contraception pill Plan B, the Los Angeles Times reports (Williams, Los Angeles Times, 7/9). The panel said the district court judge who issued the injunction refused to consider women"s need for EC (Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/9). The panel"s ruling is part of a larger case before the district court involving the constitutionality of a 2007 state regulation requiring pharmacies to stock and dispense EC. Joyce Roper, an assistant attorney general for Washington state, said the appeals court ruling means that the 2007 regulation will take immediate effect.The plaintiffs in the case, Stromans -- a supermarket pharmacy owner -- and two pharmacists employed elsewhere, argued that the state regulation requiring pharmacists to stock and dispense EC violated their First Amendment right to freedom of religion (Los Angeles Times, 7/9). The regulation said that pharmacies must stock and fill legally prescribed prescriptions but allowed individual pharmacists to object on moral or religious grounds if another pharmacist was available, in person or by telephone, to fill the order (San Francisco Chronicle, 7/9). The plaintiffs argued that the regulation would force them to choose between following their religious beliefs and keeping their jobs. They contended that EC prevents implantation of a fertilized egg, which they equated with abortion. The U.S. District Court in Seattle awarded the plaintiffs the temporary injunction in November 2007, pending trial on the constitutionality of the regulation (Los Angeles Times, 7/9). Plan B contains a high dose of a drug found in most birth control pills that generally prevents ovulation or the fertilization of an egg. Recent research suggests that it does not prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus (Woodward, AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 7/8). FDA in April lowered the age limit for nonprescription purchase of Plan B from 18 to 17 (San Francisco Chronicle, 7/9). Appeals Panel Returns Case to District CourtThe appeals court panel ruled that the freedom to exercise one"s religion "does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a valid and neutral law of general applicability." The panel added, "Any refusal to dispense -- regardless of whether it is motivated by religion, morals, conscience, ethics, discriminatory prejudices or personal distaste for a patient -- violates the rules" (Los Angeles Times, 7/9). The panel ordered the district judge to reconsider the 2007 regulation under Supreme Court standards that allow states to pass neutral laws that may affect religious practices. According to the panel, the regulation does not aim to interfere with religious practices or beliefs and is intended to promote patients" health. In addition, the panel said the district court judge did not consider how the injunction would affect "sexually active women of childbearing age who will be denied reasonable access to Plan B" (San Francisco Chronicle, 7/9). According to the Times, the panel"s ruling could foretell future judgments in the case, including that a patient"s right to timely medication surpasses a pharmacist"s personal beliefs (Los Angeles Times, 7/9).
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Small Companies Warned To Take Health And Safety Responsibilities Seriously After Roofer's Death, UK
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned small companies to take their responsibilities seriously, after a man fell through the roof of a DIY superstore in Wigan and later died.
News of the day
Rapid Growth In Health Costs Damages Economic Performance Of US Industries: Study
A first-of-its-kind RAND Corporation study has linked the rapid growth in health care costs in the United States with job losses and lower output among industries that commonly provide workers with health insurance.
Endocrinology

Brain Emotion Circuit Sparks As Teen Girls Size Up Peers

What is going on in teenagers" brains as their drive for peer approval begins to eclipse their family affiliations? Brain scans of teens sizing each other up reveal an emotion circuit activating more in girls as they grow older, but not in boys. The study by Daniel Pine, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of National Institutes of Health, and colleagues, shows how emotion circuitry diverges in the male and female brain during a developmental stage in which girls are at increased risk for developing mood and anxiety disorders. "During this time of heightened sensitivity to interpersonal stress and peers" perceptions, girls are becoming increasingly preoccupied with how individual peers view them, while boys tend to become more focused on their status within group pecking orders," explained Pine. "However, in the study, the prospect of interacting with peers activated brain circuitry involved in approaching others, rather than circuitry responsible for withdrawal and fear, which is associated with anxiety and depression." Pine, Amanda Guyer, Ph.D., Eric Nelson, Ph.D., and colleagues at NIMH and Georgia State University, report on one of the first studies to reveal the workings of the teen brain in a simulated real-world social interaction, in the July, 2009 issue of the journal Child Development. Thirty-four psychiatrically healthy males and females, aged 9 to 17, were ostensibly participating in a study of teenagers" communications via Internet chat rooms. They were told that after an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scan, which visualizes brain activity, they would chat online with another teen from a collaborating study site. Each participant was asked to rate his or her interest in communicating with each of 40 teens presented on a computer screen, so they could be matched with a high interest participant. Two weeks later, the teens viewed the same faces while in an fMRI scanner. But this time they were asked to instead rate how interested they surmised each of the other prospective chatters would be in interacting with them. Only after they exited the scanner did they learn that, in fact, the faces were of actors, not study participants, and that there would be no Internet chat. The scenario was intended to keep the teens engaged -- maintain a high level of anticipation/motivation -- during the tasks. This helped to ensure that the scanner would detect contrasts in brain circuit responses to high interest versus low interest peers. Although the faces were selected by the researchers for their happy expressions, their attractiveness was random, so that they appeared to be a mix of typical peers encountered by teens. As expected, the teen participants deemed the same faces they initially chose as high interest to be the peers most interested in interacting with them. Older participants tended to choose more faces of the opposite sex than younger ones. When they appraised anticipated interest from peers of high interest compared with low interest, older females showed more brain activity than younger females in circuitry that processes social emotion. "This developmental shift suggested a change in socio-emotional calculus from avoidance to approach," noted Pine. The circuit is made up of the nucleus accumbens (reward and motivation), hypothalamus (hormonal activation), hippocampus (social memory) and insula (visceral/subjective feelings). By contrast, males showed little change in the activity of most of these circuit areas with age, except for a decrease in activation of the insula. This may reflect a waning of interpersonal emotional ties over time in teenage males, as they shift their interest to groups, suggest Pine and colleagues. "In females, absence of activation in areas associated with mood and anxiety disorders, such as the amygdala, suggests that emotional responses to peers may be driven more by a brain network related to approach than to one related to fear and withdrawal," said Pine. "This reflects resilience to psychosocial stress among healthy female adolescents during this vulnerable period." Reference: Probing the neural correlates of anticipated peer evaluation in adolescence. Guyer AE, McClure-Tone EB, Shiffrin ND, Pine DS, Nelson EE. July 2009, Child Development. Jules Asher NIH/National Institute of Mental Health


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