Cato Files Brief in Major Supreme Court Case About Opioid Prescriptions: When Are Doctors Drug Dealers?
Trevor BurrusDr. Xiulu Ruan practiced medicine as a board‐certified pain specialist in Mobile, Alabama. His practice served almost 8,000 patients and employed 57 people. In 2016, he was indicted for unlawfully distributing controlled substances (opioids) and many related criminal charges. At his trial, the government argued that some of Dr. Ru an’s prescriptions fell “outside the usual course of treatment” and called numerous experts to testify to that claim. Dr. Ruan countered with his own experts who testified that his prescriptions were medically valid.A jury convicted Dr. Ruan based on jury instructions th...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 28, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Trevor Burrus Source Type: blogs
The global syndemic and the future of humanity: introduction to a series
" Syndemic " is a term coined my Merrill Singer in the 1990s as a portmanteau of " synergistic " and " epidemic. " In its simplest construction it refers to two or more diseases, co-occurring in a population, whose interaction produces increased morbidity and mortality. For example, opioid addiction, HIV, and other infectious diseases. Needle sharing transmits HIV, which in turn causes immunodeficiency, which increases susceptibility to other infections.However, syndemics usually involve social conditions as well. The original epidemic of injection drug use originated in social conditions, as a simple example, but syndemic...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 24, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Tobacco is a painful addiction
Smoking cigarettes is well known to cause heart disease, lung cancer, and premature death. In the face of these risks of death, quality of life issues that affect smokers are often overlooked. Although some quality of life issues such as cost, cravings, inconvenience, illness, and stigma are well known, some important effects are largely unknownRead more …Tobacco is a painful addiction originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 23, 2021 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/lee-flowers" rel="tag" > Lee Flowers, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions Psychiatry Source Type: blogs
Enhancement of old colour photographs using Generative Adversarial Networks
It’s almost Christmas, I haven’t posted anything in a while and I see that WordPress has an Image Compare feature, so let’s have some colourful fun.
When I’m not at the computer writing R code, I can often be found at the computer processing photographs. Or at the computer browsing Twitter, which is how I came across Stuart Humphryes, a digital artist who enhances autochromes. Autochromes are early colour photographs, generated using a process patented by the Lumière brothers in 1903. You can find and download many examples of them online. Stuart uses a variety of software tools to clean, enhanc...
Source: What You're Doing Is Rather Desperate - December 23, 2021 Category: Bioinformatics Authors: nsaunders Tags: multimedia enhancement gan image photography processing python Source Type: blogs
Calls To Mental Health Helplines Increased Early In The Pandemic
By Emily Reynolds
From early 2020, concerns were raised about the impact of the pandemic on mental health. The stresses of lockdown, social isolation, financial precarity, and widespread grief were all considered to be potential triggers for poor mental health, along with issues such as increased domestic violence.
A new study, published in Nature, looks at what helpline calls can reveal about mental health during this period. It finds an increase in calls to helplines during the early days of the pandemic, largely driven by fear, loneliness, and worries about physical health.
Marius Brülhart from the Un...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - December 15, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Coronavirus Mental health Source Type: blogs
The Eisenhower Principle
By KIM BELLARD
I’ve finally come to understand why the U.S. healthcare system continues to be such a mess, and I have President Dwight Eisenhower to thank.
I’ve been paying close attention to our healthcare system for, I hate to admit, over forty years now. It has been a source of constant frustration and amazement that – year after year, crisis after crisis – our healthcare system doesn’t get “fixed.” Yes, we make some improvements, like ACA, but mostly it continues to muddle along.
Then I learned about President Eisenhower’s approach to problems:
That’s it! All these smart people, all ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 14, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Public Health eisenhower Health Care Reform Health infrastructure Healthcare cost healthcare costs Kim Bellard Source Type: blogs
Pear Therapeutics raises $175M and goes public via SPAC deal raising the profile of prescription digital therapeutics
Digital health firm Pear goes public, raising $175 million (pharmaforum):
Pear will make its debut on the exchange today after combining with Thimble Point – a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) – in a deal that sidestepped the conventional initial public offering (IPO) route and has propelled its valuation to around $1.6 billion … Pear specialises in prescription digital therapeutics (DTx) based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques that can delivered remotely to [patients via a digital device. It has three apps approved by the FDA, including reSET and reSET‑O for people living with substa...
Source: SharpBrains - December 8, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Uncategorized CBT cognitive behavioural therapy DTx Pear Therapeutics prescription digital therapeutics reSET-O Somryst SPAC Thimble Point Source Type: blogs
From harm to hope: a 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives
HM Government - This policy paper sets out the government's ten-year plan to cut crime and save lives by reducing the supply and demand for drugs and delivering a high-quality treatment and recovery system. Commitments are made across government to break drug supply chains while simultaneously reducing the demand for drugs by getting people suffering from addiction into treatment, and deterring recreational drug use.Policy paperMore detail (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - December 7, 2021 Category: UK Health Authors: The King ' s Fund Library Tags: Public health and health inequalities Source Type: blogs
The Healing Power of Even Virtual Human Connection
By HANS DUVEFELT
Almost two years into this new age of varying degrees of self quarantine, I am registering that my own social interactions through technology have been an important part of my life.
I text with my son, 175 miles away, morning and night and often in between. I talk and text with my daughter and watch the videos she and my grandchildren create.
I not only treat patients via Zoom; I also participate, as one of the facilitators, in a virtual support group for family members of patients in recovery.
I have reconnected with cousins in Sweden I used to go years without seeing; now I get likes and comm...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 6, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Medical Practice Physicians Primary Care COVID-19 Hans Duvefelt virtual connection Source Type: blogs
Musical Interlude
I hope you were fortunate enough to see the Tony Bennett farewell concert, which was broadcast on Sunday, although it actually happened in August. In case you missed it, Lady Gaga was the host, and she led off with her own set before introducing Tony. Before I get to him, let me acknowledge that the band was fantastic. I don ' t know if it was a Radio City house band, a group of session players that regularly work with Gaga, or it was put together by the producers just for the occasion. I haven ' t been able to find out anything about it, they labor in anonymity. LG seemed to know the soloists, but that may just have been ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 1, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Dr. Wakeman ’s Excellent Exposition on the Overdose Crisis
Jeffrey A. SingerSarah Wakeman, MD is the Medical Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Substance Use Disorder Project and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard University Medical School. She has a wealth of experience treating addiction and has published research on thecomparative effectiveness of various treatment modalities for opioid use disorder.Dr. Wakeman recently gave aninterview to theHarvard Gazette in response to therecent news that overdose deaths for the 12 months ending April 30, 2021 reached a stunning 100,000, 75 percent of which were opioid ‐related, with 85 percent of opioi...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 30, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Brain Stimulation And Body Language: The Week ’s Best Psychology Links
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
Research into the use of deep brain stimulation to treat depression has produced mixed results. But there may promise in a more personalised approach to treatment. At Science, Kelly Servick reports on studies using imaging and electrode recordings from individuals to figure out exactly which region to stimulate — and when — for the optimal response.
According to a recent study, psychologists are pretty good at updating their beliefs about an apparently established scientific finding, after reading about a failed replication atte...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - November 26, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Weekly links Source Type: blogs
My Unpublished Letter to the Editor on the Tragic Drug Overdose Report
Jeffrey A. SingerOn November 18 theWall Street Journalran a front page story entitled “Drug Overdose Deaths, Fueled by Fentanyl, Hit Record High in U.S. ” It reported on provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that reveal a heartbreaking 100,306 drug overdose deaths for the 12 months running through April 2021, a 29 percent increase over the previous 12 month period.Thereport released by the CDC on November 17 stated that 75,673 of the more than 100,000 overdose deaths were opioid ‐related, up from 56,064 the previous year. The remainder of overdose deaths involved cocai...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 23, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
How Can I Help Others in Recovery?
Content reviewed by Karen Rubenstein, LMFT, Chief Clinical Officer at Cliffside Malibu After you have completed treatment and have continued your recovery,...The postHow Can I Help Others in Recovery? appeared first onCliffside Malibu. (Source: Cliffside Malibu)
Source: Cliffside Malibu - November 23, 2021 Category: Addiction Authors: ebarbour Tags: Addiction Recovery help others solidarity Source Type: blogs
How to Set Healthy Boundaries in Recovery
Content reviewed by Karen Rubenstein, LMFT, Chief Clinical Officer at Cliffside Malibu Do you have that one person in your life who...The postHow to Set Healthy Boundaries in Recovery appeared first onCliffside Malibu. (Source: Cliffside Malibu)
Source: Cliffside Malibu - November 22, 2021 Category: Addiction Authors: ebarbour Tags: Addiction boundaries healthy Source Type: blogs
