Cara Angelotta

Haematological malignancies developing in previously healthy individuals who received haematopoietic growth factors: Report from the Research on Adverse Drug Events and Reports (RADAR) project

Pegylated recombinant human megakaryocyte growth and development factor (PEG‐rHuMGDF) and granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor (G‐CSF) promote haematopoietic progenitor cell maturation. We reviewed the findings for healthy volunteers/donors who developed haematological malignancies following PEG‐rHuMGDF or G‐CSF administration. Information was reviewed for three of 538 volunteers who received PEG‐rHuMGDF in clinical trials and two of 200 donors who underwent G‐CSF mobilised stem cell harvesting procedures for sibling stem cell transplants. Mantle cell, diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia were diagnosed 1–5 years after PEG‐rHuMGDF exposure among three volunteers. For one patient, thrombocytopenia due to autoantibodies to PEG‐rHuMGDF developed shortly after PEG‐rHuMGDF administration and persisted until chemotherapy was administered. All three achieved complete remission, although one patient relapsed. Acute myeloid leukaemia was diagnosed 4 and 5 years after G‐CSF mobilisation in two donors who underwent peripheral blood stem cell donation for sibling allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Following intensive chemotherapy, one died from acute leukaemia and the second is in complete remission. Controversy exists over the appropriateness of administering haematopoietic growth factors to healthy individuals. While a causal relationship with haematological malignancies cannot be demonstrated, long‐term follow‐up among healthy individuals who receive haematopoietic growth factors is needed.

The Sound and the Fury: Financial Conflicts of Interest in Oncology

Benjamin Djulbegovic, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute and the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL Cara Angelotta and Kjersti E. Knox, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL Charles L. Bennett, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Northwestern University University Feinberg School of Medicine; Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center; Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center; and the Veterans Affairs Center for Management of Complex Chronic Care, Chicago, IL

Legal, financial, and public health consequences of transfusion-transmitted hepatitis C virus in persons with haemophilia

Background  Since the first cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in persons with haemophilia were reported in 1982, much has been written about the consequences of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) contamination of the blood supply. Relatively little attention has been paid to similar hepatitis C virus (HCV) concerns since the first cases of HCV‐infected persons with haemophilia were identified in 1989.

A Moral or Medical Problem? The Relationship between Legal Penalties and Treatment Practices for Opioid Use Disorders in Pregnant Women

OBJECTIVE The relationship between use of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in pregnant women with opioid use disorders, the standard of care, and state laws that permit child abuse charges for illicit drug use during pregnancy has not been described. METHODS Using publicly available data on substance abuse treatment in the United States, we describe patterns in the use of MAT for pregnant women with opioid use disorders in states with prenatal child abuse laws compared with states without such laws. A binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to predict the presence or absence of MAT in the treatment plan of pregnant women using the following independent variables: state prenatal child abuse law, referral source, geographical region, and Medicaid coverage of methadone. RESULTS In 2012, there were 8,292 treatment episodes of pregnant women with a primary opioid use disorder in the United States for which data on MAT use were available. Among states with laws that permit child abuse charges for illicit drug use in pregnancy (18 states), MAT was used in 33.15% of treatment admissions compared with 51.33% of admissions in states without a law. The following levels of the independent variables have a greater effect on the lack of use of MAT in descending order of importance: criminal justice referral, other community referral, Southern region, Medicaid coverage, drug abuse care provider referral, unknown referral, other health care provider referral, and presence of state law that permits child abuse charges. CONCLUSION Referral source, geographic region, Medicaid funding, and prenatal child abuse laws were associated with significantly lower rates of use of MAT.

Defining and refining self-harm: a historical perspective on nonsuicidal self-injury

Abstract Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a newly proposed diagnostic category in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Some contemporary historiography dismisses NSSI as a fiction of modern psychiatry. Although the exact definition and psychological meaning attributed to self-harm has not been static over history, there is a clear thread that connects Western asylum psychiatrists’ thinking about self-harm to the current stand-alone diagnostic category of NSSI. Nineteenth-century psychiatrists identified a clinically meaningful difference between self-harm with and without the intent to die, between self-injurers who were psychotic and those who were not, and between self-injurers who made a single, serious mutilation and those who repetitively self-injured without causing permanent bodily damage. These same distinctions are apparent in the definition of NSSI. Thus, NSSI is a formalization of long-held observations about a category of people who repetitively self-injure without suicidal intent.

Treating Depression during Pregnancy: Are We Asking the Right Questions?

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common complication of pregnancy. Once the diagnosis of MDD is made, the physician must assist the pregnant woman in developing a treatment plan.

Criminalizing substance use in pregnancy: misplaced priorities

‘Chemical endangerment’ laws in the United States mark an increasingly growing trend to punish women with substance use disorder. These measures are counterproductive. They create barriers to substance use treatment and prenatal care, disproportionately affecting minority and low-income women. Contingency management programs and expansion of social services would be more effective in protecting children and women and improving the problem more generally.