Escalating costs of self-injury mortality in the 21st century United States: an interstate observational study.

BACKGROUND: Estimating the economic costs of self-injury mortality (SIM) can inform health planning and clinical and public health interventions, serve as a basis for their evaluation, and provide the foundation for broadly disseminating evidence-based policies and practices. SIM is operationalized as a composite of all registered suicides at any age, and 80% of drug overdose (intoxication) deaths medicolegally classified as 'accidents,' and 90% of corresponding undetermined (intent) deaths in the age group 15 years and older. It is the long-term practice of the United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to subsume poisoning (drug and nondrug) deaths under the injury rubric. This study aimed to estimate magnitude and change in SIM and suicide costs in 2019 dollars for the United States (US), including the 50 states and the District of Columbia. METHODS: Cost estimates were generated from underlying cause-of-death data for 1999/2000 and 2018/2019 from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER). Estimation utilized the updated version of Medical and Work Loss Cost Estimation Methods for CDC's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). Exposures were medical expenditures, lost work productivity, and future quality of life loss. Main outcome measures were disaggregated, annual-averaged total and per capita costs of SIM and suicide for the nation and states in 1999/2000 and 2018/2019. RESULTS: 40,834 annual-averaged self-injury deaths in 1999/2000 and 101,325 in 2018/2019 were identified. Estimated national costs of SIM rose by 143% from $0.46 trillion to $1.12 trillion. Ratios of quality of life and work losses to medical spending in 2019 US dollars in 2018/2019 were 1,476 and 526, respectively, versus 1,419 and 526 in 1999/2000. Total national suicide costs increased 58%-from $318.6 billion to $502.7 billion. National per capita costs of SIM doubled from $1,638 to $3,413 over the observation period; costs of the suicide component rose from $1,137 to $1,534. States in the top quintile for per capita SIM, those whose cost increases exceeded 152%, concentrated in the Great Lakes, Southeast, Mideast and New England. States in the bottom quintile, those with per capita cost increases below 70%, were located in the Far West, Southwest, Plains, and Rocky Mountain regions. West Virginia exhibited the largest increase at 263% and Nevada the smallest at 22%. Percentage per capita cost increases for suicide were smaller than for SIM. Only the Far West, Southwest and Mideast were not represented in the top quintile, which comprised states with increases of 50% or greater. The bottom quintile comprised states with per capita suicide cost increases below 24%. Regions represented were the Far West, Southeast, Mideast and New England. North Dakota and Nevada occupied the extremes on the cost change continuum at 75% and - 1%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The scale and surge in the economic costs of SIM to society are large. Federal and state prevention and intervention programs should be financed with a clear understanding of the total costs-fiscal, social, and personal-incurred by deaths due to self-injurious behaviors.

Association of State Social and Environmental Factors With Rates of Self-injury Mortality and Suicide in the United States.

Importance: Self-injury mortality (SIM) combines suicides and the preponderance of drug misuse-related overdose fatalities. Identifying social and environmental factors associated with SIM and suicide may inform etiologic understanding and intervention design. Objective: To identify factors associated with interstate SIM and suicide rate variation and to assess potential for differential suicide misclassification. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study used a partial panel time series with underlying cause-of-death data from 50 US states and the District of Columbia for 1999-2000, 2007-2008, 2013-2014 and 2018-2019. Applying data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, SIM includes all suicides and the preponderance of unintentional and undetermined drug intoxication deaths, reflecting self-harm behaviors. Data were analyzed from February to June 2021. Exposures: Exposures included inequity, isolation, demographic characteristics, injury mechanism, health care access, and medicolegal death investigation system type. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome, SIM, was assessed using unstandardized regression coefficients of interstate variation associations, identified by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator; ratios of crude SIM to suicide rates per 100 000 population were assessed for potential differential suicide misclassification. Results: A total of 101 325 SIMs were identified, including 74 506 (73.5%) among males and 26 819 (26.5%) among females. SIM to suicide rate ratios trended upwards, with an accelerating increase in overdose fatalities classified as unintentional or undetermined (SIM to suicide rate ratio, 1999-2000: 1.39; 95% CI, 1.38-1.41; 2018-2019: 2.12; 95% CI, 2.11-2.14). Eight states recorded a SIM to suicide rate ratio less than 1.50 in 2018-2019 vs 39 states in 1999-2000. Northeastern states concentrated in the highest category (range, 2.10-6.00); only the West remained unrepresented. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator identified 8 factors associated with the SIM rate in 2018-2019: centralized medical examiner system (ß = 4.362), labor underutilization rate (ß = 0.728), manufacturing employment (ß = -0.056), homelessness rate (ß = -0.125), percentage nonreligious (ß = 0.041), non-Hispanic White race and ethnicity (ß = 0.087), prescribed opioids for 30 days or more (ß = 0.117), and percentage without health insurance (ß = -0.013) and 5 factors associated with the suicide rate: percentage male (ß = 1.046), military veteran (ß = 0.747), rural (ß = 0.031), firearm ownership (ß = 0.030), and pain reliever misuse (ß = 1.131). Conclusions and Relevance: These findings suggest that SIM rates were associated with modifiable, upstream factors. Although embedded in SIM, suicide unexpectedly deviated in proposed social and environmental determinants. Heterogeneity in medicolegal death investigation processes and data assurance needs further characterization, with the goal of providing the highest-quality reports for developing and tracking public health policies and practices.

Fatal self-injury in the United States, 1999-2018: Unmasking a national mental health crisis.

BACKGROUND: Suicides by any method, plus 'nonsuicide' fatalities from drug self-intoxication (estimated from selected forensically undetermined and 'accidental' deaths), together represent self-injury mortality (SIM)-fatalities due to mental disorders or distress. SIM is especially important to examine given frequent undercounting of suicides amongst drug overdose deaths. We report suicide and SIM trends in the United States of America (US) during 1999-2018, portray interstate rate trends, and examine spatiotemporal (spacetime) diffusion or spread of the drug self-intoxication component of SIM, with attention to potential for differential suicide misclassification. METHODS: For this state-based, cross-sectional, panel time series, we used de-identified manner and underlying cause-of-death data for the 50 states and District of Columbia (DC) from CDC's Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research. Procedures comprised joinpoint regression to describe national trends; Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient to assess interstate SIM and suicide rate congruence; and spacetime hierarchical modelling of the 'nonsuicide' SIM component. FINDINGS: The national annual average percentage change over the observation period in the SIM rate was 4.3% (95% CI: 3.3%, 5.4%; p<0.001) versus 1.8% (95% CI: 1.6%, 2.0%; p<0.001) for the suicide rate. By 2017/2018, all states except Nebraska (19.9) posted a SIM rate of at least 21.0 deaths per 100,000 population-the floor of the rate range for the top 5 ranking states in 1999/2000. The rank-order correlation coefficient for SIM and suicide rates was 0.82 (p<0.001) in 1999/2000 versus 0.34 (p = 0.02) by 2017/2018. Seven states in the West posted a ≥ 5.0% reduction in their standardised mortality ratios of 'nonsuicide' drug fatalities, relative to the national ratio, and 6 states from the other 3 major regions a >6.0% increase (p<0.05). INTERPRETATION: Depiction of rising SIM trends across states and major regions unmasks a burgeoning national mental health crisis. Geographic variation is plausibly a partial product of local heterogeneity in toxic drug availability and the quality of medicolegal death investigations. Like COVID-19, the nation will only be able to prevent SIM by responding with collective, comprehensive, systemic approaches. Injury surveillance and prevention, mental health, and societal well-being are poorly served by the continuing segregation of substance use disorders from other mental disorders in clinical medicine and public health practice. FUNDING: This study was partially funded by the National Centre for Injury Prevention and Control, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (R49CE002093) and the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (1UM1DA049412-01; 1R21DA046521-01A1).

Atropine 0.01% Eye Drops for Myopia Control in American Children: A Multiethnic Sample Across Three US Sites.

INTRODUCTION: Topical atropine eye drops at low concentrations have been shown to slow myopia progression in East Asian studies. This study explored the effect of atropine 0.01% eye drops on controlling myopia progression in a multiethnic cohort of children in the USA. METHODS: A multicenter retrospective case-control study (n = 198) quantified the effect of adding nightly atropine 0.01% eye drops to treatment as usual on the progression of childhood (ages 6-15 years) myopia. Cases included all children treated with atropine for at least 1 year. Controls were matched to cases on both age (± 6 months) and baseline spherical equivalent refraction (SER) (± 0.50 diopters, D) at treatment initiation. The primary endpoint was the average SER myopia progression after 1, 1.5, and 2 years of therapy. A secondary outcome was the percentage of subjects with a clinically significant worsening of myopia, defined as a greater than - 0.75 D SER increase in myopia. RESULTS: The average baseline SERs for the atropine (n = 100) and control (n = 98) groups were similar (- 3.1 ± 1.9 D and - 2.8 ± 1.6 D, respectively) (p = 0.23). The average SER increase from baseline was significantly less for the atropine group than the control group at year 1 (- 0.2 ± 0.8 D compared with - 0.6 ± 0.4 D, p < 0.001) and at year 2 (- 0.3 ± 1.1 D compared with - 1.2 ± 0.7 D, p < 0.001). Secondary analysis at year 2 revealed that 80% of the control group vs. 37% of the atropine group experienced clinically significant worsening myopia of at least - 0.75 D (p < 0.001). There were no major safety issues reported in either group. CONCLUSION: Similar to results reported in Asia, atropine 0.01% eye drops significantly reduced myopia progression in a cohort of US children over 2 years of treatment. FUNDING: Nevakar, Inc. Plain language summary available for this article.

ICare-ACS (Improving Care Processes for Patients With Suspected Acute Coronary Syndrome): A Study of Cross-System Implementation of a National Clinical Pathway.

BACKGROUND: Efforts to safely reduce length of stay for emergency department patients with symptoms suggestive of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) have had mixed success. Few system-wide efforts affecting multiple hospital emergency departments have ever been evaluated. We evaluated the effectiveness of a nationwide implementation of clinical pathways for potential ACS in disparate hospitals. METHODS: This was a multicenter pragmatic stepped-wedge before-and-after trial in 7 New Zealand acute care hospitals with 31 332 patients investigated for suspected ACS with serial troponin measurements. The implementation was a clinical pathway for the assessment of patients with suspected ACS that included a clinical pathway document in paper or electronic format, structured risk stratification, specified time points for electrocardiographic and serial troponin testing within 3 hours of arrival, and directions for combining risk stratification and electrocardiographic and troponin testing in an accelerated diagnostic protocol. Implementation was monitored for >4 months and compared with usual care over the preceding 6 months. The main outcome measure was the odds of discharge within 6 hours of presentation RESULTS: There were 11 529 participants in the preimplementation phase (range, 284-3465) and 19 803 in the postimplementation phase (range, 395-5039). Overall, the mean 6-hour discharge rate increased from 8.3% (range, 2.7%-37.7%) to 18.4% (6.8%-43.8%). The odds of being discharged within 6 hours increased after clinical pathway implementation. The odds ratio was 2.4 (95% confidence interval, 2.3-2.6). In patients without ACS, the median length of hospital stays decreased by 2.9 hours (95% confidence interval, 2.4-3.4). For patients discharged within 6 hours, there was no change in 30-day major adverse cardiac event rates (0.52% versus 0.44%; P=0.96). In these patients, no adverse event occurred when clinical pathways were correctly followed. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of clinical pathways for suspected ACS reduced the length of stay and increased the proportions of patients safely discharged within 6 hours. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.anzctr.org.au/ (Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry). Unique identifier: ACTRN12617000381381.

A randomized trial on subject tolerance and the adverse effects associated with higher- versus lower-flow oxygen through a standard nasal cannula.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Experts advocate the use of a standard nasal cannula to provide oxygen at flow rates of up to 15 L/minute during emergency intubation. However, because of concerns about potential patient discomfort, some providers avoid providing nasal cannula oxygen at flow rates greater than 6 L/minute. This trial is designed to determine the participants' ability to tolerate 10 minutes of nasal cannula oxygen at higher flow rates. METHODS: This was a prospective, randomized, crossover trial of healthy volunteers at an emergency department in New Zealand. Participants were randomized to first receive either higher-flow (15 L/minute) or lower-flow (6 L/minute) nasal cannula oxygen for 10 minutes. After a 1-hour washout period, they received the alternate flow rate for 10 minutes. The primary outcome was the ability to tolerate 10 minutes of the nasal cannula oxygen at each flow rate. The secondary outcome was the difference in discomfort between the flow rates as measured on a 100-mm visual analog scale. RESULTS: All 77 of the participants (100%) were able to tolerate 10 minutes at both flow rates. Participants rated the higher-flow nasal cannula oxygen as a mean of 25 mm (SD 20 mm) more uncomfortable than the lower-flow nasal cannula oxygen. One minute after the oxygen was discontinued, the mean difference in discomfort between the flow rates was a clinically insignificant 9.8 mm (SD 17 mm) more uncomfortable. There were no adverse events. CONCLUSION: Participants were able to tolerate higher-flow nasal cannula oxygen for 10 minutes without difficulty. Higher-flow nasal cannula oxygen at 15 L/minute was associated with some discomfort, but the discomfort quickly dissipated and caused no adverse events.

Confronting death from drug self-intoxication (DDSI): prevention through a better definition.

Suicide and other self-directed violence deaths are likely grossly underestimated, reflecting inappropriate classification of many drug intoxication deaths as accidents or unintentional and heterogeneous ascertainment and coding practices across states. As the tide of prescription and illicit drug-poisoning deaths is rising, public health and research needs would be better satisfied by considering most of these deaths a result of self-intoxication. Epidemiologists and prevention scientists could design better intervention strategies by focusing on premorbid behavior. We propose incorporating deaths from drug self-intoxication and investigations of all poisoning deaths into the National Violent Death Reporting System, which contains misclassified homicides and undetermined intent deaths, to facilitate efforts to comprehend and reverse the surging rate of drug intoxication fatalities.

A survey of policies and procedures on the communication and documentation of radiologic interpretations.

Research into emergency medicine (EM) diagnostic errors identified imaging as a contributing factor in 94% of cases. Discrepancies between the preliminary (trainee) and the final (attending) diagnostic imaging interpretation represent a system issue that is particularly prone to creating diagnostic errors. Understanding the types of systematic communication and documentation strategies developed by academic radiology departments to address differences between preliminary and final radiology interpretations to clinicians are threshold steps toward minimizing this risk. This study investigates policies and practices associated with the communication and documentation of preliminary and final radiologic interpretations among U.S. academic radiology departments through a questionnaire directed at radiology department chairs.

Physician assistants in emergency medicine: the impact of their role.

BACKGROUND: Emergency medicine (EM) in North America has been undergoing significant transformation since the new century. Recent health care reform has put it center stage. Access demand for acute care is increasing at the same time the number of qualified emergency physicians entering service has reached a plateau. Physician assistants (PAs), one alternative, are employed in emergency departments (EDs), but little is known about the impact of their role. OBJECTIVES: This was a literature review to identify the current role of PAs in patient treatment and the management of emergency services. METHODS: All publications and designs from 1970 through 2009 were identified using multiple science citation indices. Each author reviewed the literature, and categories were developed based on consensus. RESULTS: Thirty-five articles and reports were sorted into categories of interest: prevalence of PAs in EDs, efficiency and quality of care, patient satisfaction, rural emergency care, and legal issues. Each category is summarized and discussed. Evidence comparing the clinical effectiveness of PAs to mainstream management of emergency care was only fair in methodologic quality. CONCLUSIONS: The use of PAs in EDs is increasing, and this expansion is due to necessity in staffing and economy of scale. Unique uses of PAs include wound management, acute care transfer management to the wards, and rural health emergency staffing. While their role seems to be expanding, this assessment identified gaps in deployment research using appropriate outcome measures in the area of clinical effectiveness of PAs.

Women of child-bearing age have better inhospital cardiac arrest survival outcomes than do equal-aged men.

OBJECTIVES: Estrogen and progesterone improve neurologic outcomes in experimental models of cardiac arrest and stroke. Our objective was to determine whether women of child-bearing age are more likely than men to survive to hospital discharge after in-hospital cardiac arrest. DESIGN: Prospective, observational study. SETTING: Five hundred nineteen hospitals in the National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation database. PATIENTS: Patients included 95,852 men and women 15-44 yrs and 56 yrs or older with pulseless cardiac arrests from January 1, 2000 through July 31, 2008. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Patients were stratified a priori by gender and age groups (15-44 yrs and > or =56 yrs). Fixed-effects regression conditioning on hospital was used to examine the relationship between age, gender, and survival outcomes. The unadjusted survival to discharge rate for younger women of child-bearing age (15-44 yrs) was 19% (940/4887) vs. 17% (1203/7025) for younger men (p = .013). The adjusted hospital discharge difference between these younger women and men was 2.8% (95% confidence interval, 1.0% to 4.6%; p = .002), and these younger women also had a 2.6% (95% confidence interval, 0.9% to 4.3%; p = .002) absolute increase in favorable neurologic outcome. For older women compared with men (> or =56 yrs), there were no demonstrable differences in discharge rates (18% vs. 18%; adjusted difference, -0.1%; 95% confidence interval, -0.9% to 0.6%; p = .68) or favorable neurologic outcome (14% vs. 14%; adjusted difference, -0.1%; 95% confidence interval, -0.7% to 0.5%; p = .74). CONCLUSIONS: Women of child-bearing age were more likely than comparably aged men to survive to hospital discharge after in-hospital cardiac arrest, even after controlling for etiology of arrest and other important variables.

Trends in U.S. emergency department visits for anxiety-related mental health conditions, 1992-2001.

OBJECTIVE: To describe trends in anxiety-related mental health visits to U.S. emergency departments, an expanding portal of access for mental health care. METHOD: Data from 1992 through 2001 were obtained from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey using mental health-related ICD-9-CM, E- and V-codes as well as National Center for Health Statistics-assigned Patient Reason-for-Visit classification codes. Population-weighted anxiety-related emergency department visit rates were analyzed over time by age, gender, race, Hispanic ethnicity, insurance status, urban status, region of the country, urgency of presentation, and use of medication. RESULTS: There were 53 million mental health-related visits, increasing from 4.9% to 6.3% of all emergency department visits (p = .003) and from 17.1 to 23.6 per 1000 U.S. population across the decade (p = .000). Anxiety-related visits were common (16% of all mental health visits) and increased significantly from 3.5 to 5.0 visits per 1000 U.S. population over the decade (p = .011). Anxiety-related visits increased significantly among non-Hispanic whites, children (< 15 years), adults younger than 49 years, and the privately insured; changes among Medicare, Medicaid, and self-pay patients were not significant. Overall hospitalization rates declined from 23% to 21% between 1992 and 2001 (p = .037), but they did not change significantly for anxiety-related visits (8%), which remained the least likely visit type to be admitted of all mental health visits for the entire decade. In contrast to rural emergency departments, urban emergency departments witnessed significant increases in anxiety-related visits, rising from 2.9 to 5.2 per 1000 U.S. population across the decade (p trend = 0.007). Regionally, anxiety-related visits were highest in the Northeast, lowest in the West, and increased significantly in only the South and Northeast. CONCLUSION: During the decade, there was an expansion of anxiety-related visits to U.S. emergency departments, reflecting an increase in anxiety-related emergency department care-seeking, an increase in anxiety awareness among patients and practitioners, or both.

Survival from in-hospital cardiac arrest during nights and weekends.

CONTEXT: Occurrence of in-hospital cardiac arrest and survival patterns have not been characterized by time of day or day of week. Patient physiology and process of care for in-hospital cardiac arrest may be different at night and on weekends because of hospital factors unrelated to patient, event, or location variables. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether outcomes after in-hospital cardiac arrest differ during nights and weekends compared with days/evenings and weekdays. DESIGN AND SETTING: We examined survival from cardiac arrest in hourly time segments, defining day/evening as 7:00 am to 10:59 pm, night as 11:00 pm to 6:59 am, and weekend as 11:00 pm on Friday to 6:59 am on Monday, in 86,748 adult, consecutive in-hospital cardiac arrest events in the National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation obtained from 507 medical/surgical participating hospitals from January 1, 2000, through February 1, 2007. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome of survival to discharge and secondary outcomes of survival of the event, 24-hour survival, and favorable neurological outcome were compared using odds ratios and multivariable logistic regression analysis. Point estimates of survival outcomes are reported as percentages with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). RESULTS: A total of 58,593 cases of in-hospital cardiac arrest occurred during day/evening hours (including 43,483 on weekdays and 15,110 on weekends), and 28,155 cases occurred during night hours (including 20,365 on weekdays and 7790 on weekends). Rates of survival to discharge (14.7% [95% CI, 14.3%-15.1%] vs 19.8% [95% CI, 19.5%-20.1%], return of spontaneous circulation for longer than 20 minutes (44.7% [95% CI, 44.1%-45.3%] vs 51.1% [95% CI, 50.7%-51.5%]), survival at 24 hours (28.9% [95% CI, 28.4%-29.4%] vs 35.4% [95% CI, 35.0%-35.8%]), and favorable neurological outcomes (11.0% [95% CI, 10.6%-11.4%] vs 15.2% [95% CI, 14.9%-15.5%]) were substantially lower during the night compared with day/evening (all P values < .001). The first documented rhythm at night was more frequently asystole (39.6% [95% CI, 39.0%-40.2%] vs 33.5% [95% CI, 33.2%-33.9%], P < .001) and less frequently ventricular fibrillation (19.8% [95% CI, 19.3%-20.2%] vs 22.9% [95% CI, 22.6%-23.2%], P < .001). Among in-hospital cardiac arrests occurring during day/evening hours, survival was higher on weekdays (20.6% [95% CI, 20.3%-21%]) than on weekends (17.4% [95% CI, 16.8%-18%]; odds ratio, 1.15 [95% CI, 1.09-1.22]), whereas among in-hospital cardiac arrests occurring during night hours, survival to discharge was similar on weekdays (14.6% [95% CI, 14.1%-15.2%]) and on weekends (14.8% [95% CI, 14.1%-15.2%]; odds ratio, 1.02 [95% CI, 0.94-1.11]). CONCLUSION: Survival rates from in-hospital cardiac arrest are lower during nights and weekends, even when adjusted for potentially confounding patient, event, and hospital characteristics.

Higher survival rates among younger patients after pediatric intensive care unit cardiac arrests.

BACKGROUND: Age is an important determinant of outcome from adult cardiac arrests but has not been identified previously as an important factor in pediatric cardiac arrests except among premature infants. Chest compressions can result in more effective blood flow during cardiac arrest in an infant than an older child or adult because of increased chest wall compliance. We, therefore, hypothesized that survival from cardiac arrest would be better among infants than older children. METHODS: We evaluated 464 pediatric ICU arrests from the National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation from 2000 to 2002. NICU cardiac arrests were excluded. Data from each arrest include >200 variables describing facility, patient, prearrest, arrest intervention, outcome, and quality improvement data. Age was categorized as newborn (<1 month; N = 62), infant (1 month to <1 year; N = 105), younger child (1 year to <8 years; N = 90), and older child (8 years to <21 years; N = 207). Multivariable logistic regression was performed to examine the association between age and survival. RESULTS: Overall survival was 22%, with 27% of newborns, 36% of infants, 19% of younger children and 16% of older children surviving to hospital discharge. Newborns and infants demonstrated double and triple the odds of surviving to hospital discharge from a cardiac arrest in an intensive care setting when compared with older children. When potential confounders were controlled, newborns increased their advantage to almost fivefold, while infants maintained their survival advantage to older children. CONCLUSIONS: Survival from pediatric ICU cardiac arrest is age dependent. Newborns and infants have better survival rates even after adjusting for potential confounding variables.

Increased cortisol in women with intimate partner violence-related posttraumatic stress disorder.

BACKGROUND: Alterations of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function and sympathetic-adrenal activity have been proposed as key factors in biological models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHODS: We examined neuroendocrine function in female survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) with lifetime (current or remitted) PTSD (n=29) and in women who were exposed to IPV but never developed PTSD (n=20). Salivary cortisol was collected as a marker of HPA axis function at 1, 4, 9, and 11 h after awakening. Platelet epinephrine and norepinephrine were assayed as markers of sympathetic-adrenal activation. RESULTS: Women with lifetime PTSD had significantly higher cortisol levels across the day compared to abuse-exposed participants without PTSD, after controlling for age, depression, severity, and latency of abuse. There were no significant group differences in levels of platelet catecholamines. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated cortisol levels may be a biomarker of IPV-related lifetime PTSD, reflecting long-lasting changes associated with trauma-exposure or possibly a reflection of risk for PTSD in women.

Physicians' preparedness for bioterrorism and other public health priorities.

OBJECTIVES: Potential bioterrorism challenges policy makers to balance competing public health priorities. Earlier surveys showed low physician bioterrorism preparedness but did not assess physicians' general public health preparedness, compare the preparedness of emergency and primary care physicians, or assess temporal trends. METHODS: This was a national, cross-sectional, random-sample survey conducted in 2003. RESULTS: Overall, 744 of 1,200 eligible physicians responded (response rate, 62%). Of these, 58% of emergency physician respondents and 48% of primary care physician respondents reported having learned a lot about responding to bioterror since September 11, 2001 (p < 0.01). However, only 43% of emergency physicians and 21% of primary care physicians agreed they are generally "well prepared to play a role in responding to a bioterror attack" (p < 0.001). Beliefs about balancing public health priorities were similar among emergency and primary care respondents. Seventy-eight percent of respondents believed that local health care systems need to be prepared for bioterrorism, and 92% believed that local health care systems need to be prepared for natural epidemics. By contrast, only 23% and 46% of respondents reported that their local health care systems are well prepared for bioterrorism and natural epidemics, respectively. Meanwhile, 77% agreed that "influenza is a greater threat to public health than bioterrorism," and 21% reported that bioterrorism preparedness efforts are diverting resources from more important public health problems. CONCLUSIONS: In 2003, most emergency and primary care physicians reported that they and their local health care systems were not yet well prepared to respond to a bioterror attack, and many believed that more resources should go toward preparing for natural epidemics. These findings highlight the importance of expanding bioterrorism preparedness efforts to improve the public health system more broadly.

Validation of a brief observation period for patients with cocaine-associated chest pain.

BACKGROUND: Retrospective studies of patients with cocaine-associated chest pain suggest that a strategy of discharging patients from the emergency department after a 12-hour observation period if they do not have evidence of ischemia should be associated with a very low rate of complications. METHODS: We prospectively evaluated the safety of a 9-to-12-hour observation period in patients with cocaine-associated chest pain who were at low-to-intermediate risk of cardiovascular events. Consecutive patients who reported or tested positive for cocaine use and who received protocol-driven care in a chest-pain observation unit were included. Patients who had normal levels of troponin I, without new ischemic changes on electrocardiography, and who had no cardiovascular complications (dysrhythmias, acute myocardial infarction, or recurrent symptoms) during the 9-to-12-hour observation period were discharged from the unit. The main outcome was death from cardiovascular causes at 30 days. RESULTS: Three hundred forty-four patients with cocaine-associated chest pain were evaluated. Forty-two of these patients (12 percent) were directly admitted to the hospital. The study cohort comprised the remaining 302 patients. During the 30-day follow-up period, none of the patients died of a cardiovascular event (0 percent; 95 percent confidence interval, 0 to 0.99), and only 4 of the 256 patients for whom detailed follow-up data were available had a nonfatal myocardial infarction (1.6 percent; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.1 to 3.1). All four nonfatal myocardial infarctions occurred in patients who continued to use cocaine. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with cocaine-associated chest pain who do not have evidence of ischemia or cardiovascular complications over a 9-to-12-hour period in a chest-pain observation unit have a very low risk of death or myocardial infarction during the 30 days after discharge.