Managed-care pharmacy benefit programs and many state Medicaid phar­macy formularies are choosing to promote the prescribing of methadone as an opioid of choice because of the drug’s low acquisition cost for managing pain. Some programs advise the analgesic use of methadone in place of long-acting and long-term opioids. However, neither the drug’s effectiveness nor efficacy has been exposed to rigorous, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials—and many pre scribers remain unaware of an important labeling change introduced last fall.

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Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have identified some distinctive proteins in the blood of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that could be used to diagnose the condition more effectively.

Doctors generally diagnose AD only by eliminating other possible causes of mental decline. Only after a patient dies can surgeons examine brain tissue to look for the protein plaques and tangles that are the hallmark of the disease.

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