Diversity in Academic Dermatology.

The American Medical Association recently declared racism to be a public health threat. It declared that “Racism negatively impacts and exacerbates the health inequities among historically marginalized communities”.1 The New England Journal of Medicine echoed this declaration in a recent article that included goals for making medicine more diverse by transforming “the ranks of institutional research leadership, faculty, trainees, and staff to reflect the demographic diversity of the communities their organizations serve.”2 The article also calls for more transparent selection criteria for choosing leaders in medicine. Necessary changes are articulated and provide a pathway towards more equality in medicine. One subspecialty in the field of medicine (dermatology) lacks the type of diversity one would expect from physicians who study the skin. Although the problem has been discussed for years, it has yet to be rectified. J Drugs Dermatol. 2022;21(5):674-676. doi:10.36849/JDD.6899.

Cost effectiveness of botulinum toxins for the treatment of depression: preliminary observations.

The standard of care for the treatment of depression involves pharmacologic therapy with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Cognitive therapy is typically utilized in addition to a pharmacologic intervention. However, the benefits of the drugs used may be marginal compared with placebo yet the costs associated with their use continue to increase. One potential treatment for depression utilizes botulinum toxins. At the present time there is a small body of evidence supporting their use for depression, the potential efficacy and cost effectiveness of this treatment warrants further consideration including head to head clinical trials.