Category: From Newswise – Addiction

Whether you are keeping up with your vaccinations at a community healthcare center or prepping for surgery in a major hospital, like it or not, we all have to deal with our modern healthcare system. According to Revcycle Intelligence, U.S. healthcare spending rose by 4.6 percent compared to last year, while healthcare employment growth was driven by hospitals, which added 19,400 jobs in February 2023. With rising insurance premiums, and the politics of future funding of Medicare, healthcare affects our wallets as well as our well-being.

Keep up with this ever-growing, changing sector. Below are some of the latest stories on healthcare on Newswise.

Naloxone Prescriptions Increased at U.S. Hospitals Between 2012 and 2019

Significant Disparities in Breast Cancer Care Persist, But Surgeons Can Drive Change

Patients with septic shock benefit from a combination of hydrocortisone-fludrocortisone therapy

New program shows promise in reducing financial burden of cancer care

Average privately insured family spends $1,300 for child’s hospitalization

Women with higher out-of-pocket costs receive fewer follow-up procedures to screening mammograms

Clinical Trial Participation Associated with Improved Overall Survival in Ovarian Cancer Patients

‘Smart’ bandages monitor wounds and provide targeted treatment

How one state beat national surgery opioid trends

Largest US state-by-state analysis of COVID-19 impact reveals the driving forces behind variations in health

Mental distress among female individuals of reproductive age after overturning of Roe v Wade

2022 heatwave struck off surgery in fifth of UK hospitals

Investigators Find Disparities in Mesothelioma Survival Due to Social Determinants, Limited Access

Survey finds patients value immediate access to test results

Cataract surgery reimbursements may not be enough for some patients

Seniors’ use of urinary-tract infection antibiotics halved

Machine learning programs predict risk of death based on results from routine hospital tests

 

Newswise — A new study from the University of Illinois Chicago used death certificate data to compare mortality rates in states that legalized recreational cannabis dispensaries with states that only provided access to medical cannabis.

The UIC researchers found that there was a substantial increase in crash fatalities in four of the seven states used in the study with legalized recreational markets and that, on average, recreational markets were associated with a 10% increase in motor vehicle accident deaths.  

Study first author Samantha Marinello said the findings suggest that it may be beneficial for states with legal recreational cannabis to invest in policies and public health initiatives to mitigate this potential harm and build awareness of the dangers of driving under the influence.  

“To see a 10% increase in motor vehicle accident deaths associated with recreational markets is concerning. Previous studies have found cannabis impairs driving ability and that driving while high is fairly common among regular cannabis users,” said Marinello, a postdoctoral research associate with the division of health policy and administration at the UIC School of Public Health. 

For the analysis, Marinello and Lisa Powell, UIC distinguished professor and director of the division, focused on seven states that implemented legal recreational cannabis markets: Alaska, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. They collected data from death certificates from 2009-2019 on deaths in three areas that have previously been linked to cannabis use but are still poorly understood: motor vehicle accidents, suicide and opioid overdose.  

For each cause of death, the researchers compared trends in deaths in states with legal markets with those in states that had comprehensive medical cannabis programs and similar trends in death rates prior to implementing markets.

“We didn’t want to compare states with very different mortality trends or social ideology, so we looked at each state and outcome and identified comparison states with existing medical cannabis programs and with similar pre-trends to conduct our analysis,” Marinello said.  

The data revealed significant increases in crash fatalities in Colorado (16%), Oregon (22%), Alaska (20%) and California (14%).

“The results suggest that a potential unintended consequence of recreational markets is increased cannabis-intoxicated driving and crash deaths, and, hence, a potential need for policies focused on reducing driving under the influence of cannabis,” the authors write.

The researchers found no evidence that recreational markets impacted suicides, which is notable because cannabis use is associated with the development of depressive disorders and suicidality.

For opioid overdose deaths, recreational markets were associated with an 11% reduction in fatalities, on average. Across all seven states, the reduction ranged from 3% to 28%.  

Marinello said that the reduction in opioid overdose fatalities is another potential area of impact that should be a factor in states considering legalization.  

“This study provides evidence of both potential benefits and harms that policymakers should consider when legalizing recreational cannabis markets,” Marinello said. 

“The impact of recreational cannabis markets on motor vehicle accident, suicide, and opioid overdose fatalities” is published in the journal Social Science & Medicine.

Newswise — HAMILTON, ON – Mar 24, 2024 – Tobacco users in Canada are exposed to higher levels of cyanide than smokers in lower-income nations, according to a large-scale population health study from McMaster University.

Scientists made the discovery while investigating the molecule thiocyanate – a detoxified metabolite excreted by the body after cyanide inhalation. It was measured as a urinary biomarker of tobacco use in a study of self-reported smokers and non-smokers from 14 countries of varying socioeconomic status. 

“We expected the urinary thiocyanate levels would be similar across regions and reflect primarily smoking intensity. However, we noticed significant elevation of thiocyanate in smokers from high-income countries even after adjusting for differences in the number of cigarettes smoked per day,” says Philip Britz-McKibbin, co-author of the study and a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at McMaster.

Tobacco-related illness remains the leading cause of preventable illness and premature death in Canada, contributing to approximately 48,000 deaths annually. According to researchers, the findings could be caused by the type of cigarettes smoked in high-income countries like Canada.

“The cigarettes commonly consumed in Canada are highly engineered products with lower tar and nicotine content to imply they’re less harmful. Heavy smokers with nicotine dependence compensate by smoking more aggressively with more frequent and deeper inhalations that may elicit more harm, such as greater exposure to the respiratory and cardiotoxin, cyanide.”

Smoking rates in Canada have declined from 26 per cent in 2001 to 13 per cent in 2020. But participation in smoking cessation programs has declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to concern about a potential uptick in smoking rates, including cannabis use and a plethora of vaping of products popular among young adults.

Researchers say urinary thiocyanate can serve as a robust biomarker of the harms of tobacco smoke that will aid future research on the global tobacco picture, since most smokers now reside in developing countries. As smoking rates have decreased here in Canada, at-risk groups like youth and pregnant women have been prone to underreport their tobacco use when surveyed, making a reliable biomarker more valuable.

“Historically assessing tobacco behaviors have relied on questionnaires that are prone to bias, especially when comparing different countries and local cultures. The idea is to find robust methods that can quantify recent tobacco smoke exposure more reliably and objectively, which may better predict disease risk and prioritize interventions for smoking cessation.” says Britz-Mckibbin.

The study was published in the latest issue of Nicotine and Tobacco Research and received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Genome Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Hamilton Health Sciences New Investigator Fund, and an internal grant from the Population Health Research Institute.

-30-

For more information please contact:

Photos of Philip Britz-McKibbin can be found here

Credit: McMaster University

Newswise — WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – March 24, 2023 – Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have been awarded a five-year, $7.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Helping End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative.

The NIH HEAL initiative, which launched in 2018, was created to find scientific solutions to stem the national opioid and pain public health crises. The funding is part of the HEAL Data 2 Action (HD2A) program, designed to use real-time data to guide actions and change processes toward reducing overdoses and improving opioid use disorder treatment and pain management.

With the support of the grant, researchers will create a data infrastructure support center to assist HD2A innovation projects at other institutions across the country. These innovation projects are designed to address gaps in four areas—prevention, harm reduction, treatment of opioid use disorder and recovery support.

“Our center’s goal is to remove barriers so that solutions can be more streamlined and rapidly distributed,” said Meredith C.B. Adams, M.D., associate professor of anesthesiology, biomedical informatics, physiology and pharmacology, and public health sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. 

By monitoring opioid overdoses in real time, researchers will be able to identify trends and gaps in resources in local communities where services are most needed.

“We will collect and analyze data that will inform prevention and treatment services,” Adams said. “We’re shifting chronic pain and opioid care in communities to quickly offer solutions.”

The center will also develop data related resources, education and training related to substance use, pain management and the reduction of opioid overdoses. 

According to the CDC, there was a 29% increase in drug overdose deaths in the U.S.  in 2020, and nearly 75% of those deaths involved an opioid. 

“Given the scope of the opioid crises, which was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s imperative that we improve and create new prevention strategies,” Adams said. “The funding will create the infrastructure for rapid intervention.”

 

Newswise — SPOKANE, Wash.—People living in the United States must travel significantly farther to access methadone treatment for opioid addiction than Canadians, suggests a new study led by Washington State University researchers.

Published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, the researchers’ analysis showed that the average driving distance to the closest methadone clinic accepting new patients was more than three times greater in the U.S. compared to Canada. When limiting their analysis to clinics that could provide treatment within 48 hours the difference was even larger, with those in the U.S. having to travel more than five times farther than their neighbors north of the border.

“Our research suggests that the U.S. could benefit from adopting Canada’s more flexible regulatory approach to methadone treatment, which is associated with greater availability of timely treatment, especially in rural areas,” said lead study author Ofer Amram, an assistant professor in the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine.

Amram explained that those seeking methadone treatment in the U.S. must start their treatment and receive their daily dose of methadone at federally approved treatment clinics, which in rural parts of the country can be far and few between. In Canada, methadone is prescribed not only in more widely available treatment clinics but also through trained primary care providers. Once treatment has started, Canadian patients can pick up their daily methadone dose at a local pharmacy.

The WSU team, who worked with researchers at Yale University and Simon Fraser University in Canada on the study, analyzed data collected from 563 methadone clinics accepting Medicaid or provincial insurance. These clinics were located in 14 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces that had the highest opioid overdose rates within each country. The researchers calculated the driving distance from 17,611 census tracts within those states and provinces to the nearest clinic accepting new patients. After adjusting for differences in population density and demographics, they found that U.S. census tracts were an average of 11.6 miles farther from the closest methadone clinic accepting new patients. For clinics that could take in new patients within 48 hours, the distance gap was even wider at an average of 25.1 miles farther in the U.S. than in Canada.

For rural areas of the U.S. where the population is more spread out, the researchers found that access to a clinic providing treatment within 48 hours required lengthy drives of as many of 138 miles. Amram said this was especially true for rural areas of Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri.

Amram noted that their comparison only looked at methadone treatment clinics—Canadian primary care providers prescribing methadone were not included.

“What that tells us is that the actual differences in treatment accessibility between the U.S. and Canada are even larger than our study suggests,” he said.

Data for the study were collected between mid-May and mid-June 2020, when both the U.S. and Canada had COVID-19 related policy exemptions in place that temporarily increased access to take-home methadone doses to facilitate social distancing. A previous study led by the WSU investigators showed that this increased flexibility in take-home dosing did not lead to worse treatment outcomes. The study was cited in recent guidance issued by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that extends methadone take-home flexibilities for one year past the end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, which is set to expire on May 11.

“Our work adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests that better outcomes may be achieved by making these changes permanent along with expanding treatment to additional outpatient settings such as primary care clinics and community pharmacies,” Amram said. “Given the magnitude of the opioid overdose crisis, it’s important that we consider all the tools available to us to reduce barriers to treatment.”

The governing board of the New Jersey Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) project approved pilot funding and the release of data for four research proposals in its inaugural application cycle. The project builds on the working relationship between Rutgers University and state agencies to further population health research by linking administrative data.

A new national study published in BMC Public Health suggests that problematic social media use in early adolescents is associated with both positive and negative alcohol beliefs, which play a key role in predicting alcohol use and, potentially, the development of alcohol use disorder later in life.

Americans are drinking more caffeinated beverages than ever before, but Rutgers researchers found one group that tops the charts in caffeine consumption: adult smokers with mental illness.

Below are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Chemistry news channel on Newswise.