Briefly Noted

A project that began a year ago (see ADAW, Jan. 15, 2018), Shatterproof's rating system of addiction treatment programs took another step last month when the nonprofit announced it would start out with a pilot, now that it has $5 million. Saying the current addiction treatment system is broken, Shatterproof founder and CEO Gary Mendell said the project was made possible by funding from two foundations (the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) and a coalition of five insurance companies. “People who need help for addiction don't know what to look for or where to turn,” said Sam Arsenault, director of national treatment quality initiatives at Shatterproof, in the Dec. 18 announcement of the project. “We are taking rating system best practices from health care and other business sectors and applying them to addiction treatment. This will not only provide critical information to individuals looking for care but also drive a long overdue transformation of the addiction treatment industry.” The Shatterproof Rating System will utilize data from three sources: insurance claims, provider surveys and consumer experience, with collaboration from the National Quality Forum (NQF), a membership organization composed of payers. Initially, the program will begin with a pilot, with analysis done by RTI International. “Consumers can find information and accurate data on the quality of nursing homes, hospitals, physicians and most other types of providers,” said Tami Mark, director of behavioral health financing and quality measurement at RTI International. “It's time that patients have reliable information on addiction treatment.”     

Briefly Noted

Researchers have found that attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be a risk factor for developing smartphone addiction, based on the neurobiological substrates underlying each separately and those that are shared. The study found a greater than six times likelihood that children with ADHD also had smartphone addiction. The study looked at the prevalence of smartphone addiction and its association with depression, anxiety, and ADHD symptoms in a total of 4,512 South Korean middle and high school students, who completed surveys. There were 338 subjects (7.5%) in the smartphone addiction group. The odds ratio of the ADHD group compared to the non‐ADHD group for smartphone addiction was 6.43, the highest among all variables. The study, “The relationship between smartphone addiction and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity in South Korean adolescents” is published in the March issue of the Annals of General Psychiatry.     

Briefly Noted

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that primary care clinicians provide interventions, including education or brief counseling, to prevent initiation of tobacco use among school‐aged children and adolescents. However, there is not enough evidence to recommend tobacco‐cessation interventions in this population, according to the draft recommendation, released in June. The USPSTF is not part of the U.S. government, but its recommendations are taken into consideration by clinical and payer organizations. It only makes recommendations for interventions when it has found adequate evidence that the interventions do more good than harm. In the case of tobacco interventions, the task force found no evidence at all of harms of providing behavioral prevention interventions. However, once kids are already using nicotine, there is not enough evidence to recommend for or against cessation options. The recommendations were first published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and in Pediatrics in 2013; the final draft recommendations were issued in June, for public comment by July 22. For a link, go to https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Document/draft‐recommendation‐statement/tobacco‐and‐nicotine‐use‐prevention‐in‐children‐and‐adolescents‐primary‐care‐interventions .     

Briefly Noted

Last week, the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issues a warning about a cluster of pulmonary illnesses possibly linked to vaping. The cases have primarily been among adolescents and young adults. In some cases the young people had also used cannabis.