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Bill Fuels Debate Over Universal Screening For Postpartum Depression
A bill (HR 20, S 324) in Congress that would mandate funding for research, services and public education related to postpartum depression has sparked debate over whether all women should be screened for the condition, Time reports. The Melanie Blocker-Stokes Postpartum Depression Research and Care Act, also known as the Mothers Act, passed the House and is before the Senate. The bill does not specifically include funding for PPD testing, though an earlier version did; regardless, critics say it would still lead to greater screening. According to Time, the issue at the center of the debate is whether PPD screening identifies actual cases "or simply contribute[s] to the potentially dangerous medicalization of motherhood." Ingrid Johnston-Robledo, director of women"s studies at the State University of New York, said that experts on both sides of the debate agree about increased support for women. "The problem with women"s reproductive health issues is that they tend to be ignored or exaggerated," Johnston-Robledo said. She added, "We need to find a way to come down in the middle: acknowledge women"s depression but not assume that all women who struggle with the transition to motherhood are depressed."Critics of the bill argue that mental health screenings are notorious for giving false positives. They also contend that increased testing is a bid by pharmaceutical companies to sell more medication to women who do not need it. Some psychologists argue that universal PPD screening would be misdirected because the greatest risk factor for the condition is previous depression, not giving birth. Paula Caplan, a clinical and research psychologist, said, "(We) should be addressing the social factors causing women to be upset after they give birth, not locating the problem within the women."Some proponents of PPD screening say it is not supposed to be used as a diagnostic tool but as a way to identify which patients require further evaluation. According to Time, studies suggest that PPD affects as many as one out of seven women who have recently given birth and that leaving it untreated exposes women and their infants to unwarranted risk. Katherine Wisner, a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said, "Postpartum depression is not a benign, uncommon thing." She added, "We screen all infants for (the genetic disorder) phenylketonuria, which is extremely rare. Why don"t we screen women for this?" (Elton, Time, 7/20).
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÷£100 Million Social Marketing Campaign To Encourage Responsible Drinking Announced, UK
Following Gordon Brown"s meeting at Downing Street with Britain"s top drinks industry executives he called for them to harness their considerable marketing powers to drive for change in social norm and cultural attitudes towards alcohol in the UK. This has resulted in Project "N" - a collaboration of the not inconsiderable res of top companies throughout the UK.
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Department Of Health And Home Office Publish Joint Review Findings, UK
A joint Department of Health and Home Office review group has published its findings on a review into access to the NHS by foreign nationals, Health Minister Ann Keen announced today.
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Tall Men Earn More, In Australia

As far as earning more, it appears that size really does matter, or at least it does in Australia, where researchers recently discovered a significant link between a man"s height and his wage. An extra 5 cm of height is worth about 950 Australian dollars (roughly 760 US dollars) a year, said Australian National University economist Professor Andrew Leigh and Dr Michael Kortt, a public researcher at the University of Sydney. The researchers found there was no disadvantage as far as income was concerned if you were overweight or obese, but for men especially there was an advantage to being tall. The link between height and wage was also numerically true for women, they found, but it was not statistically significant. For the study, which has not been published in a journal, as far as we know, the researchers used data from a nationally representative sample of Australian adults. The results showed that taller people earned more, with the effect being strongest for men, said Leigh. "For example, the average man in our sample is 5 feet 10 inches tall. Our estimates suggest that if he was 6 feet tall, he would earn another 1.5 per cent, or around $950 per year," he added. In other words, the wage gain from another 2 inches (5 cm) of height "is approximately equal to wage gain from one more year of labour market experience," explained Leigh. He and Kortt said the link was still strong when they took into account other factors such as age, race, family background, education and experience. However, the link between height and wage while there numerically, was not as strong for women. "We found that the effect of height on women"s wages was smaller than for men, and not statistically significant," said Leigh. Leigh and Kortt also looked at the link between Body Mass Index (BMI) and earnings. Their representative sample showed that 36 per cent of working Australians were overweight and 22 per cent were obese. But to their surprise they didn"t find any links between BMI and earnings: "There seemed to be no wage penalty to being overweight or obese in the Australian labour market," said Leigh. This contrasts with findings from other countries like Germany and the US where they found that workers who were more overweight earned less. As to why the apparent discrepancy, Leigh had two suggestions. Either it was an effect due to to time (their data is more recent), or it was a difference in national attitudes to overweight and obese workers. "Does Size Matter in Australia?" Andrew Leigh and Michael Kortt. Retrieved online from Australian National University website on 20 May 2009. Additional s: ANU News. Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today


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