FRIDAY, Feb. 21, 2025 (HealthDay News) — America’s opioid crisis is showing signs of subsiding, a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says. Drug overdose deaths (OD) decreased by 4% between 2022 and 2023, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. TheContinue Reading
FRIDAY, Dec. 20, 2024 (HealthDay News) — An existing drug might be able to treat an autoimmune disorder that causes dry eye, dry mouth, fatigue and muscle or joint pain. Baricitinib (Olumiant), a drug currently used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, appears to effectively curb the symptoms of Sjögren’s disease, accordingContinue Reading
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 18, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Rates of vaping, drug and alcohol use among American teens plummeted during the pandemic and have remained at relatively low levels ever since, new government statistics show. “This trend in the reduction of substance use among teenagers is unprecedented,” said Dr. Nora Volkow,Continue Reading
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 13, 2024 (HealthDay News) — People are at higher risk of schizophrenia if they indulge in psychedelic drugs, a new study warns. Patients who land in the ER following hallucinogen use have a 21-fold higher risk of developing schizophrenia compared to the general population, Canadian researchers report. EvenContinue Reading
TUESDAY, Oct. 22, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Expanded access to addiction treatment and the overdose-reversal med naloxone likely prompted a 37% reduction in OD deaths linked to opioids taken with meth or other stimulant drugs, a new study suggests. OD death rates were 8.9 deaths per 100,000 in communities withContinue Reading
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 28, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Recreational drug users are three times more likely to have repeated heart health emergencies than people who don’t use, a new study has found. About 11% of patients admitted to intensive cardiac care units have been using recreational drugs, said researcher Dr. RaphaelContinue Reading
MONDAY, June 10, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Though overdose deaths continue to surge, there is no approved medication to treat methamphetamine use disorder. Now, an experimental two-drug therapy has yielded promising results, UCLA researchers report. “These findings have important implications for pharmacological treatment for methamphetamine use disorder,” said researcher Dr.Continue Reading
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 13, 2023 (HealthDay News) — A California company has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve MDMA, the active ingredient in party drugs like molly and ecstasy, as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When announcing the new drug application (NDA) filing on Tuesday, MAPSContinue Reading
TUESDAY, Dec. 5, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Methamphetamine abuse has long plagued the gay community, but a new study finds that any form of substance abuse treatment can help users quit. In a news release, University of California, Los Angeles researchers explained that men who have sex with men areContinue Reading
THURSDAY, Sept. 14, 2023 (HealthDay News) — The “fourth wave” of the U.S. overdose crisis involves the use of illicit fentanyl mixed with stimulants such as cocaine or methamphetamine, and it’s killing people in droves. The proportion of U.S. overdose deaths involving both fentanyl and stimulants jumped by more thanContinue Reading
THURSDAY, May 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) — When people receive methadone treatment for opioid use disorder, their use of the dangerous drugs heroin and fentanyl significantly declines, a new study shows. But decreases in cocaine or methamphetamine use were not seen in a year of treatment, researchers report. “Methadone treatmentContinue Reading
WEDNESDAY, March 8, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Contrary to concerns, wider availability of naloxone treatment is not increasing heroin use among U.S. teens, new research finds. Naloxone (Narcan) quickly reverses an overdose from opioids like heroin, fentanyl, morphine and oxycodone (OxyContin). There had been some worry that expanding access toContinue Reading
TUESDAY, Feb. 21, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Deaths from methamphetamine among Americans increased 50-fold between 1999 and 2021, a chilling new study reports. Most of these deaths also involved heroin or fentanyl, according to researchers. “The staggering increase in methamphetamine-related deaths in the United States is largely now driven byContinue Reading
TUESDAY, Dec. 13, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Researchers already knew that injecting drugs can lead to the dangerous and deadly heart infection called endocarditis. Now they know that also becoming infected with COVID-19 appears to increase risk for this already vulnerable group. “A lot of people talk about long COVID,Continue Reading