News in brief - July 5, 2004

AMA opposes FDA action on Plan B - Smoking deserves an "R" rating - AMA votes to support research on violence and abuse - Improvements in prison health care needed

AMA opposes FDA action on Plan B

The Food and Drug Administration should reconsider immediately its decision to deny over-the-counter status to emergency contraception (Plan B), according to a policy adopted by the AMA at its Annual Meeting in Chicago last month.

"Physicians feel strongly that people need to have easy access to emergency contraception pills, and allowing those medications to be dispensed over the counter is one way to enhance access," said AMA Trustee Ronald Davis, MD.

The Association, along with many other medical societies, has long supported wider availability of this product. Two FDA advisory committees voted overwhelmingly in December 2003 to allow it to be available without a prescription, but in May, the agency took the unusual step of going against that recommendation and turned the application down.

AMA policy also urges that emergency contraception be more readily available from pharmacies and encourages physicians to write advance prescriptions for their patients.

Smoking deserves an "R" rating

Movies showing the use of cigarettes and other forms of tobacco should get an "R" rating, according to policy adopted last month by the American Medical Association's House of Delegates.

Physicians supporting the action argued that "R" ratings on the basis of sex, nudity or violence have long discouraged young people from seeing films with these types of content. Meanwhile, smoking, which is also generally viewed as an adult activity, appears to be more and more pervasive in movies of all ratings. The hope is that tobacco use in movies would decrease, and that what smoking there is would only be seen by adults.

"Smoking in the movies has increased dramatically," said Stephen L. Hansen, MD, coordinator of the AMA's Tobacco Control Coalition. "It's very damaging to our young people."

In related action, the AMA urged that the sale of tobacco products be restricted to specialty stores, and it wants to work with the gaming industry to ban smoking in casinos and other venues. The AMA will also advocate for a national smoking-cessation quit-line network and wants to raise the profile of the Office of Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

AMA votes to support research on violence and abuse

Research into the prevention and treatment of violence and abuse, support programs that work to increase awareness of the availability of services, and efforts to guarantee health care access for abuse victims should have a high place on the nation's health agenda, according to a resolution approved at the AMA's Annual Meeting last month in Chicago. The AMA will also study best practices for the diagnosis and management of violence to develop interventions.

"I often see the devastating effects of violence and abuse on young people, families and whole communities," said David Fassler, MD, a delegate from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. "We need to give this issue a high priority."

Improvements in prison health care needed

Medical care provided in jails should meet the standards of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, and prison officials should work with the commission to find cost-effective ways to improve funding and quality, according to a policy adopted at the American Medical Association's Annual Meeting in June in Chicago.

The AMA has long supported the concept of a national accreditation program for correctional facility medical care. Now that one exists -- the NCCHC -- the AMA is going one step further and asking the prison system to sign on to it in order to improve the quality of services, including those related to mental health.

Physicians widely supported this policy because of the recognition that illness in prison can spill over to affect the community at large.