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A decade ago a new psychological treatment, EMDR (eye movement desensitization reprocessing), began making waves because of its ability to relieve anxiety, phobias, and flashbacks in patients in a matter of weeks or months, instead of the years of more traditional talk sessions. "EMDR is a nice adjunct to more traditional therapy," MED Professor Bessel Van der Kolk says in a story in the October 29 Boston Globe. "We can use it to help people over small hurdles or stuck points that keep them from working through painful memories." Some 60,000 therapists have been trained to use EMDR, and more than a million patients have been treated. In EMDR the therapist moves his fingers rapidly back and forth in front of the patient's face, and the patient follows the movements with his eyes. Sometimes, eye movements are replaced by sounds alternating between right and left ears through headphones. This method mimics the rapid movements that eyes make when one dreams, and like dreams, EMDR helps the brain become reconciled with bad experiences lodged in the memory. Therapists have yet to determine if EMDR is effective for a wider range of disorders, such as depression and low self-esteem.

Washington Governor Gary Locke (LAW'75) recently proposed a new prescription-discount plan for seniors, whereby the price cut would come from pharmacies instead of drug manufacturers. Around the state, pharmacists are complaining that they will be paying the same wholesale prices but selling the drugs for less and losing profits. A number of experts agree with the state's pharmacists association that for the most part manufacturers' prices are the source of escalating drug prices, not pharmacy prices. SPH Professor Alan Sager says in a November 2 story in the Seattle Times, "Pharmacy profit in 1998 was 2 percent of the average cost of a drug, compared with 74 percent paid to manufacturers. Squeezing retailers distracts attention from the real problem: manufacturers' insistence that U.S. customers pay higher prices." The main objective of Locke's plan is to help seniors afford necessary drugs, but forcing pharmacists to provide discounts may ultimately hurt patients by reducing the number of retailers needed for quick drug dispensing and counseling patients. Locke's plan, scheduled to begin in January 2001, is called the AWARDS discount club, and allows Washington residents aged 55 and older to join a buyers club.

Health-care industry insiders in Massachusetts have noticed that hospital mergers have been luring doctors to the new facilities, but when the hospitals fail to make a profit, the doctors are laid off. This forces them to spend their own money to open private practices. In a story in the October 31 Boston Herald, SMG Management Policy Professor Stephen Davidson says, "If you're thinking in market terms, this is normal. Some will have to go out of business. There's not enough work for this number of doctors, so they have to find something else to do. That's a harsh lesson for the doctors. It's a pretty harsh lesson for patients, too, because they don't want to give up on their doctors."

"Vessel," a poem by CAS Professor of English Robert Pinsky, appears on posters hung in dorms, offices, academic departments, and libraries all across the Penn State system, reports the November/ December 2000 issue of The Penn Stater. The posters are produced by Penn State University's Public Poetry Project, which displays poetry in public places to make it a part of people's daily lives. Pinsky, the first U.S. poet laureate to visit Penn State, spoke at University Park in October.

"In The News" is compiled by Mark Toth in the Office of Public Relations.

10 November 2000
Boston University
Office of University Relations