| Court makes it easier for patients to enter rehab
Pennsylvanians battling drug and alcohol addiction will not need a second opinion from their HMO before entering treatment programs, a state appeals court ruled. In a unanimous decision released Thursday, Commonwealth Court ruled that group insurance companies and HMOs must cover drug and alcohol treatment costs for policy holders referred to detoxification, rehabilitation and outpatient programs by a doctor or psychologist. The ruling will help about 15,000 state residents with private insurance who seek substance abuse treatment each year, said Deborah Beck, president of the Drug and Alcohol Service Providers Organization of Pennsylvania. It's a really important decision that I think gives power back to doctors and psychologists, said Beck, whose Harrisburg-based organization represents licensed treatment centers and school-run counseling programs.
Celebs aside, rehab can work
Lindsay Lohan is back in rehab. It's not surprising, really. How serious can one be about overcoming addiction when one jumps back into the Los Angeles party circuit wearing an ankle bracelet designed to measure one's blood-alcohol content days after checking out of a chic substance-abuse treatment center? Lohan faces new charges of misdemeanor drunken driving, felony cocaine possession and driving on a suspended license following an incident early Tuesday morning. She had been out of rehab less than two weeks. It is not unusual to relapse in substance abuse recovery, celebrity or no. Actor Daniel Baldwin, who allowed ABC News' "Primetime" to tape various stages of his three-month drug-treatment program in Malibu, Calif., reportedly tried nine other treatment centers in his battle with addiction.
Proteolix starts clinical trial of multiple myeloma drug
Proteolix Inc. enrolled the first patient in a mid-stage clinical trial of its drug carfilzomib, intended as a treatment for multiple myeloma. The South San Francisco drug company is running the test with the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium at 10 centers associated with the consortium. Centers participating in the Phase II trial include Emory University, the Mayo Clinic, the University of Michigan and Washington University. Patients enrolled in the study will have relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma -- meaning their cancer has reappeared after they were treated with at least two other FDA-approved therapies and that their cancer is restant to treatment. .
Church has plans for big campus
The Life Christian Church in West Orange is gearing up to move its growing ministry from two separate locations in town to a sprawling campus off Northfield Avenue. The multicultural, nondenominational church has plans to consolidate its Harrison Avenue worship center and its Ridgeway Avenue ministry office and family life campus-based operations into a seven-acre site that a developer donated to the church as part of a complicated land swap to gain new municipal open park space. But some township residents have expressed concern about the church's Peace Over Addiction Through Healing substance abuse program that features weekly recovery meetings for people struggling with recovery issues. For now, however, the church has submitted an application with the township planning board only for approval to construct 3,500 square feet of modular offices on the site, at Northfield Avenue and Vizcaya Boulevard, across from the Jewish Community Center.
Leading Drug Rehab Referral Database Now Offers Support for Patients with Eating Disorders
RecoveryConnection.org, a leading drug rehabilitation referral database now offers assistance for patients with binge eating, anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders. An eating disorder is a serious psychiatric condition and it is recommended that eating disorders be treated as such. .
Lindsay Lohan's third rehab stint costs 15,000 pounds a month
London, Aug 12 (ANI): Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan's third rehab stint is costing her a whopping 15,000 pounds a month fee. The 'Mean Girls' star has checked into the Cirque Lodge clinic in Utah, which calls itself America's most 'exclusive' drug rehab centre, for an intensive one-month rehabilitation programme following her second DUI arrest in Santa Monica on July 24. However, a family source said that like the previous two facilities, the current rehab centre is also more like a resort than a clinic "Of course, I am pleased she is seeking help," the Daily Mail quoted the relative as saying. "But I don't think this is any more what Lindsay needs than the last two places she chose. They were more like resorts than rehabs and I am afraid from what I have read about Cirque Lodge it is really more of the same.
To hell and back
Ron and Carren Clem have the kind of relationship many fathers would die to have with their daughters. They tease each other affectionately, see one another regularly; they’ve even started working together. The irony is that Ron nearly died to have this. Six years ago, Carren, 23, was a crystal meth addict. She stole from her parents to fund her habit. One of her junkie friends threatened to shoot Ron. He started to drink heavily and considered suicide. If ever there was a warning about how destructive drug addiction is, it is sitting in front of me. Carren is now clean, married and pregnant with her first child. The two have written a book together, Loss of Innocence, a memoir of Carren’s slide into addiction — and her recovery. You may not have heard of crystal meth — or crystal methamphetamine, but if its use continues to spread at its current rate, it could soon be as infamous as crack cocaine.
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