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1. Psychiatric researchers at Columbia University say their investigation into omega-3 fish oil and clinical depression has determined that only certain formulations are helpful as a depression treatment adjunct. Dr. Elizabeth Sublette advises dividing the amount of a fish oil capsule's EPA by its combined EPA+DHA amount; a result of 0.60 or greater suggests the product has an optimal ratio. More on Sublette's omega-3 research can be found at http://www.moodstudies.org/ and in the December issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
2. The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention proposes draft standards for probiotics for inclusion in the Food Chemicals Codex. According to a Jan. 3 announcement, USP includes quality specifications for probiotics strains, such as identification and microbe count, in addition to intended uses in food, in the FCC appendix titled "Microbial Food Cultures Including Probiotics." USP also may begin developing more detailed compendial monograph standards for specific strains, the standards-setting organization says. Health Canada already regulates probiotics products via monograph, as we noted here in October.
3. On Jan. 1, California became the first state to limit sales of dextromethorphan to consumers 18 and older, as the San Francisco Chronicle reports here and "The Tan Sheet" noted in September. The Chronicle says reports of abuse of DXM, found in OTCs such as Mucinex-DM and Robitussin-DM, have increased tenfold in the state since 2003. We reported last month that, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Monitoring the Future survey, cough syrup abuse fell a significant amount among 12th graders but held relatively steady among 8th graders in 2011.
- Dan Schiff (d.schiff@elsevier.com)
