addiction
A growing fentanyl harm reduction move
Eros Dervishi for STAT
Over the last decade, there's been a rapid, organic shift among drug users away from injection and towards smoking. The change is a clear example of how people's behavior, no matter the context, can significantly affect their health outcomes. (Opting out of needles can practically eliminate a person's risk for skin wounds or certain infections, for example.)
The shift has also revealed how, too often, public opinion and government policy are out of step with the basic realities of drug use epidemiology. "My favorite thing about smoking as overdose prevention is that smoking is a social experience," said Jim Duffy, the founder of Smoke Works, which distributes "injection alternatives" like pipes. "We lose people when they're alone."
Read more from STAT's Lev Facher on what changing behaviors mean for public health and addiction treatment. And to get an up-close look at how harm reduction works, watch the accompanying video. Lev and Alex Hogan visited Duffy at the Smoke Works headquarters, then hiked into the New Hampshire woods with a local worker distributing supplies to folks in a remote homeless encampment.
reproductive health
What happens when pregnant people discontinue antidepressants?
People who discontinue antidepressants during pregnancy are almost twice as likely to have a mental health emergency as those who continue on their meds, according to a study abstract presented yesterday at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual pregnancy meeting. Those emergencies peaked in the first and ninth month of pregnancy, data from nearly 4,000 patients showed.
Researchers analyzed a "state-based private insurance database" and found that the majority of people who had prescriptions for SSRIs or SNRIs discontinued them during pregnancy. It's an important time for this research: a recent FDA panel on antidepressant use during pregnancy elevated skeptics of the drugs, and officials have indicated that they're considering adding warning labels for pregnant people. "Treatment for mental health conditions should not be withheld during pregnancy," the study authors concluded in the abstract.
academia
An uptick in rejections with little explanation
At least 40 life sciences students have had their applications for the National Science Foundation's high-profile early-career fellowship program "returned without review." Effectively, these applications have been rejected before outside experts got a chance to judge the scientific merit of their proposals.
STAT's Jonathan Wosen writes about this disappointing phenomenon being tracked by Grant Witness and first reported by Eos. "A lot of students are hearing all these things that are happening, but they may not be at the forefront of submitting large NSF or large NIH grants. They're getting a taste of it [now]," computational biologist and master's advisor Jill Wegrzyn told Jonathan. Read more on how this experience might alter the course of some students' careers.
No comments