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Covid-19 study highlights a continued drop in U.S. life expectancy

An updated analysis of American COVID-19 deaths throughout 2021 highlights a continued drop in overall life expectancy as well as persistent disparities by race and ethnicity.

2 Sep 2022

Older people experiencing homelessness more likely to die soon

A quarter of the participants in a long-term study of older people experiencing homelessness in Oakland died within a few years of being enrolled, UC San Francisco researchers found.

29 Aug 2022

A needle exchange project modeled on urban efforts aims to save lives in rural Nevada

Richard Cusolito believes he's saving lives by distributing clean syringes and needles to people who use drugs in this rural area of northeastern Nevada — but he knows some residents disagree.

24 Aug 2022

From book stacks to psychosis and food stamps, librarians confront a new workplace

For nearly two decades, Lisa Dunseth loved her job at San Francisco's main public library, particularly her final seven years in the rare books department.

23 Aug 2022

Out-of-pocket costs may prevent uninsured Americans from accessing naloxone

The cost of buying the opioid antidote naloxone is out of reach for many uninsured Americans, a hurdle that may keep the treatment from saving more people who overdose on opioids, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

19 Aug 2022

Key gene sheds light on how people develop tolerance to pain-relievers over time

UF Scripps Biomedical Research scientists have a discovered a key gene that is shedding light on how people develop tolerance to pain-relievers over time, a problem that raises risk of addiction and overdose.

18 Aug 2022

Public health agencies adapt covid lessons to curb overdoses, STDs, and gun violence

Shannan Piccolo walked into a hotel with a tote bag full of Narcan and a speech about how easy it is to use the medicine that can reverse opioid overdoses.

17 Aug 2022

Methamphetamine use is pervasive and drives overdoses in rural communities across the U.S.

Methamphetamine remains a stubbornly prevalent illicit substance in large swaths of rural America, according to a new study by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and other institutions.

15 Aug 2022

‘Still a lot of pain’: Four years after mass shooting, Texas community grapples with fallout

In May 2018, after a high school shooting killed 10 people, the Santa Fe Resiliency Center opened in a church. Any resident could see a counselor, attend a support group, and take part in a healing mandala coloring class, music therapy, or a workshop on emotional first aid — all free of charge.

15 Aug 2022

They call it ‘tranq’ — and it’s making street drugs even more dangerous

Approaching a van that distributes supplies for safer drug use in Greenfield, Massachusetts, a man named Kyle noticed an alert about xylazine.

11 Aug 2022

Experts use tools from artificial intelligence to rapidly identify substances that cause overdose deaths

An automated process based on computer algorithms that can read text from medical examiners' death certificates can substantially speed up data collection of overdose deaths – which in turn can ensure a more rapid public health response time than the system currently used, new UCLA research finds.

9 Aug 2022

Study highlights the urgency of removing barriers to accessing medications for opioid use disorder

The opioid overdose and death epidemic continues to worsen across the United States, but medications such as methadone, buprenorphine, and extended-release naltrexone are proven to reduce opioid overdoses by more than 50 percent.

4 Aug 2022

Music festivals embrace overdose reversal drugs, but fentanyl testing kits remain taboo

A 26-year-old was found dead at his campsite during the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in 2019. The toxicology report linked his death to a grim trend that has only worsened since.

3 Aug 2022

Carbon monoxide foam in the fight against inflammation

News-Medical speaks to Leo Otterbein about a novel way to deliver carbon monoxide to the body while bypassing its potentially hazardous effects.

2 Aug 2022

Administering low-dose buprenorphine intravenously may be a quick way to treat patients with substance use disorders

Overdose deaths involving opioids continue to be a major public health crisis, killing 1,280 people in Baltimore City in 2020, according to the Maryland Department of Health. Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have developed a new way to treat patients with substance use disorders intravenously by administering small doses of buprenorphine, a prescription drug used to treat opioid use disorder.

1 Aug 2022

Future wave of opioid-involved overdose deaths will spike in rural and urban areas

Over the past 21 years of opioid overdose deaths - from prescription drugs to heroin to synthetic and semisynthetic opioids such as fentanyl - geography has played a role in where opioid-involved overdose deaths have occurred, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

28 Jul 2022

Study: Prescribing rate of non-opioid pain medications increased after 2016 CDC guideline

After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a guideline for prescribing opioids to patients experiencing chronic pain in 2016, the prescribing rate of non-opioid pain medication increased each year above and beyond what would be expected based on the preexisting trends, a new study finds.

15 Jul 2022