After Moving Slightly Forward on Buprenorphine, Will We Shift Into Reverse?
Jeffrey A. SingerThe Department of Health and Human Services issuedrelaxed guidelines for physicians wishing to treat Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) with buprenorphine in the closing days of the Trump administration. While I arguedhere that the guidelines don ’t go far enough, it was nevertheless a step in the right direction.Even though outright repeal of the Drug Enforcement Administration ’s so‐called “X‐waiver,” required of health care practitioners wishing to treat OUD with buprenorphine receivedbipartisansupport in the last Congress, the Biden administration is consideringrescinding the new bup...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 1, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Confronting Stigma From Opioid Use Diorder in Cancer Care
by Fitzgerald Jones, Ho, Sager, Rosielle and MerlinHave you ever been so distressed by a perspective piece that it kept you up at night? The type of rumination that fills you with so much angst that you have no choice but to act. This is exactly how we felt when we read theAAHPM Quarterly Winter 2020 Let ’s Think About It Again.1 (member paywall)The column, which is structured as a sort of written debate in which two authors argue a clinical question, describes a case of a 45-year-old man with severe substance use disorder (SUD) recently diagnosed with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer. He was offered aggr...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - January 30, 2021 Category: Palliative Care Tags: ftigerald jones ho merlin rosielle sager Source Type: blogs
Confronting Stigma From Opioid Use Disorder in Cancer Care
by Fitzgerald Jones, Ho, Sager, Rosielle and MerlinHave you ever been so distressed by a perspective piece that it kept you up at night? The type of rumination that fills you with so much angst that you have no choice but to act. This is exactly how we felt when we read theAAHPM Quarterly Winter 2020 Let ’s Think About It Again.1 (member paywall)The column, which is structured as a sort of written debate in which two authors argue a clinical question, describes a case of a 45-year-old man with severe substance use disorder (SUD) recently diagnosed with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer. He was offered aggr...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - January 30, 2021 Category: Palliative Care Tags: ftigerald jones ho merlin rosielle sager Source Type: blogs
A Small But Certain Step Toward Removing the “X” Waiver
Jeffrey A. SingerOn January 14, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued new,relaxed guidelines for physicians wishing to prescribe buprenorphine to their patients with opioid use disorder. While the so ‐called “X” waiver required of prescribers remains, thenew guidelines permit physicians (not nurse practitioners or physician assistants) to prescribe buprenorphine without the waiver. They may only prescribe to patients located within their own state and they may have no more than 30 opioid use disorder patients on buprenorphine at any time.Buprenorphine is a synthetic opioid that was develope...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 16, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Medgadget ’s Best Medical Technologies of 2020
In conclusion, 2020 will certainly be remembered for a world stopped by an pandemic. It will also stand out as a time when people came together to innovate, adapt, and improve the world around them. We wish you all a happy New Year and look forward to better times ahead, together.
Flashbacks: Medgadget’s Best Medical Technologies of 2019; 2018; 2017; 2016; 2015 (Source: Medgadget)
Source: Medgadget - December 30, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Exclusive Source Type: blogs
No, Young Adults Should Not Live in Fear from Coronavirus
What follows is an OpEd that I co-authored with Andrew Foy, MD, from Penn State University. Andrew is an academic cardiologist who studies the quality of scientific evidence.
Two outlets have declined to publish our piece. This is not surprising given that we critique a research letter written by prominent academic leaders. As you read our take, please keep in mind that we oppose only the ideas expressed in the interpretation of data.
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The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published a research letter that reported an excess of nearly 12,000 deaths among younger adults th...
Source: Dr John M - December 29, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr John Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 28th 2020
In conclusion, our study demonstrated that the molecular processes of aging are relatively subtle in their progress, and the aging process of every tissue depends on the tissue's specialized function and environment. Hence, individual gene or process alone cannot be described as the key of aging in the whole organism.
Mouse Age Matters: How Age Affects the Murine Plasma Metabolome
A large part of metabolomics research relies on experiments involving mouse models, which are usually 6 to 20 weeks of age. However, in this age range mice undergo dramatic developmental changes. Even small age differences may l...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 27, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Data for COVID-19 Mortality in Older People in the US
The general consensus on mortality due to COVID-19 is that it falls most heavily on people who are more impacted by aging: poor immune function when it comes to defense against pathogens; high levels of chronic inflammation that create a greater susceptibility to the way in which SARS-CoV-2 kills people; existing chronic disease; and a mortality rate that is already high even setting aside the pandemic. When younger people die due to the virus, in much smaller numbers, it is where they share these characteristics of inflammation, deficient immune systems, and chronic disease. This level of morbidity is unusual in younger i...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 23, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Going After Scapegoats Is Easier Than Confronting The Truth
Jeffrey A. SingerYesterday the Department of Justicefiled suit against the giant retailer Walmart, accusing it of fueling the opioid crisis by encouraging its pharmacists to fill prescriptions –legally written by health care practitioners licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration–they should have suspected of being inappropriately prescribed.The Justice Department seems uninterested in the fact that there isno correlation between the number of opioid prescriptions and the non ‐medical use of prescription pain reliever or the development of opioid use disorder. And while the number of opio...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 23, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
The Effect of Opioid Supply-Side Interventions on Opioid-Related Business Establishments
Justine Mallatt, The Effect of Opioid Supply-Side Interventions on Opioid-Related Business Establishments, SSRN: In response to climbing opioid misuse and overdoses, states passed several types of programs that target the supply side of the prescription opioid market, including Prescription Drug... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - December 7, 2020 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs
Drug Makers and Distributors Commandeered by Cops
Jeffrey A. SingerIn the latest episode of “Cops Practicing Medicine,” a floor vote is scheduled in the House of Representatives for H.R. 3878, sponsored by Rep. David McKinney, (R-WV). Under current law, drug makers and distributors are required to report to the Drug Enforcement Administration any suspicious orders for controlled substances. H.R. 3878 would also require them to perform “due diligence” on their suspicions, document and report their due diligence to the DEA, and refuse to fill the order if their suspicions are not resolved by the due diligence.This amounts to the DEA commandeering the drug maker...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 16, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Defusing the “Benadryl challenge”: Discussing danger with teens
Let’s start with the bottom line: Parents of teens need to help them understand that just because they have been “challenged” to do something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. But as simple as that sounds to us, it’s tough for many teens to grasp.
The latest challenge in the news is the “Benadryl challenge” that appeared on TikTok, a popular social media video platform. The idea was to take a whole lot of Benadryl (diphenhydramine, a common antihistamine) in order to cause a high, with hallucinations. While it’s true that diphenhydramine can make you high and make you hallucinate, when you take too much ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 2, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Adolescent health Behavioral Health Children's Health Parenting Source Type: blogs
Opioid Policymakers Keep Tilting at Windmills, Striking Patients in the Process
Jeffrey A. SingerThe American Psychological Association Dictionary of Psychologydefines“denial” as “adefense mechanism in which unpleasant thoughts, feelings, wishes, or events are ignored or excluded from conscious awareness. It may take such forms as refusal to acknowledge the reality of a terminal illness, a financial problem, an addiction, or a partner ’s infidelity…”Many policymakers, including many in Congress, remain in a state of denial about the true cause of the overdose crisis:drug prohibition.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ’s October 4, 2020provisional report on...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 15, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
A Tale of Two Scourges
Jeffrey A. SingerSome observers of our policy toward the coronavirus pandemiccriticize the tendency to focus on case numbers alone, when hospitalization rates and fatality rates are what really matter. And as we learn more about the COVID virus, mitigation and treatment is improving and fatalities are diminishing.Similarly, the U.S. Department of Justice ’s policy toward the overdose epidemic seems to be focused on arrests and drug interdictions, apparent in a DOJpress release today, itemizing the arrests of drug traffickers and seizures of illegal drugs that have resulted since “Operation SOS” began i...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 24, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Why the DEA, not the FDA? Revisiting the Regulation of Potentially-Addictive Substances
Taleed El-Sabawi (Elon University), Why the DEA, not the FDA? Revisiting the Regulation of Potentially-Addictive Substances, 16 NYU J. L.& Bus. 2 (2020): In addressing the opioid overdose crisis, Congress has explicitly questioned its historic reliance on a criminal... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - September 22, 2020 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs
