The first clinical trial of deep brain stimulation for drug addiction launched in Shanghai and may be heading to the US. In the past, DBS—surgical implantation of a device in the brain that can electronically stimulate specific areas—has yielded mixed results. A recent…
April 19, 2019
Yesterday, US health officials pledged $350 million to study local solutions to the opioid crisis. The 4-state effort will home in on selected communities, aiming to reduce their opioid-related overdose deaths by 40% over 3 years, Reuters reports.
April 15, 2019
When it comes to drugs, all pricing is not created equal. Far from it. In Greece, the pneumonia vaccine ranges from $9 per immunization to $168; France pays $189; Lebanon $243; India $60. These swings and roundabouts sum up a “broken” drug pricing system worldwide, says…
April 9, 2019
Prison and police services in Basra, Iraq are stretched to the brink as scores of dealers and users are put behind bars, most of them unemployed and under 25. Crystal meth is the dominant drug. The city’s massive oil wealth stands in stark contrast to its poor living…
April 3, 2019
Baltimore’s legacy of segregation, high poverty rates and massive socio-economic disparities means the toll of opioids is especially acute in the city's black communities. Overdose deaths in the 1990s prompted the state of Maryland and Baltimore to expand access to…
March 26, 2019
Instead of easing into retirement, many American grandparents are becoming parents all over again—raising grandchildren orphaned by the opioid crisis. The trend is especially pronounced in rural, low-income white families living in states heavily burdened with substance…
March 21, 2019
African Americans and Hispanics have seen the sharpest rise in fentanyl overdose deaths, according to the first CDC analysis to single out the drug’s role in the opioid crisis, The Washington Post reports.
March 13, 2019
Hundreds of thousands die each year from counterfeit or poor quality drugs, warn doctors and scientists calling for an international movement to flush the fakes out of the system. 250,000 children die from drugs intended to treat malaria and pneumonia alone, they write in…
March 7, 2019
Opioid prescribing guidelines are harming patients with severe chronic pain, according to a letter by 300 medical professionals from across the spectrum of the opioid debate. The authors' “uneasy alliance” includes 3 former White House drug czars, pain and addiction…
February 26, 2019
Cheap tramadol pills smuggled into Gaza have set off an opioid crisis among the area's masses of unemployed youth. It’s hard to measure the scope of the problem in Gaza, “a conservative society of 2 million where it is considered shameful to admit to such a problem,”…