Category: From Newswise – Substance Abuse

Newswise — As the old song says, there’s no place like home for the holidays.

That is, unless you’re home on the couch with a fever, cough or sick child, while everyone else is out decking the halls, dashing through the snow, spinning the dreidl or playing reindeer games.

Or even worse, you could get stuck spending a not-so-silent night in the emergency department, or ringing in the new year in a hospital bed.

So, as the holiday season gets into high gear, now’s the time to get yourself and those you love vaccinated against diseases that tend to spike in winter.

Cases of flu, COVID-19 and RSV have already started to rise, but it’s not too late to get vaccinated and take other steps to protect yourself.

Three doctors from across University of Michigan Health – Del DeHart, M.D., who directs infection prevention at UM Health-West, Preeti Malani, M.D., who specializes in infectious diseases and the care of older adults at the main Michigan Medicine campus, and Steve W. Martin, M.D., who focuses on intensive care for very sick children at U-M Health at Sparrow Children’s Hospital – weigh in on the discussion to keep you safe.

Watch the video from a recent live vaccine discussion to hear their sage advice.

12 tips for avoiding winter illnesses

1. Get the updated COVID-19 vaccine for yourself and everyone over the age of 6 months

Three different brands – made by Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax – have been available since September.

All of them can really make a difference in boosting your ability to fight off a new coronavirus infection – even if you had COVID-19 this past summer.

But less than a quarter of Americans have gotten one yet.

Go to vaccines.gov to find a dose near you or ask if you can do a walk-in vaccination at the pharmacy counter the next time you’re there.

The updated COVID vaccines were developed to address the newest strains of the virus that has been plaguing the world for nearly four years.

Said DeHart, “The strains are changing over time, but the seriousness of the illness hasn’t changed dramatically. These vaccines are very effective for preventing critical illness and serious illness.”

2. Get the flu vaccine for yourself and everyone over the age of 6 months

Malani notes that in addition to making just about anyone miserable for days or weeks, the flu can lead to severe, life-threatening illness in older adults.

But nearly a third of them still haven’t gotten this year’s updated flu vaccine.

If you know one of them, “Give them a call and remind them to get their flu vaccine, especially before the holidays,” she said.

Martin says the flu vaccine is also especially important for young children and anyone with asthma.

“With travel we become one big melting pot,” at the holidays, which helps flu spread quickly, Malani added.

“Don’t bring it home and don’t take it with you. Having a vaccination really helps protect those around you, not just you.”

3. Get the new RSV vaccine if you’re over 60, or in the last months of pregnancy. Get your newborn or toddler immunized against RSV if they are eligible

New options to prevent respiratory syncytial virus just became available this year for all three groups.
 
“As a pediatric critical care physician, I meet children and families on their worst days. These vaccines can prevent thousands of those worst days in the United States every year,” said Martin, who notes that in 2022, RSV cases in children were twice as high as they’d been in the past 10 years.

More than 1,000 infants die of RSV each year, and those who survive have a higher risk of asthma later in life.

The new RSV options that can be given between the 32^nd and 36^th week of pregnancy, or the first 8 months of life, have been shown to reduce severe disease by as much as 80%, Martin notes.

But RSV isn’t just a problem for kids – it leads to the deaths of more than 10,000 older adults a year, Malani says.

People over 60 who have health issues or are around young children should especially seek vaccination right away.

4. If you have a baby, toddler or tween, or if you’re immunocompromised or over 65, there are vaccines against bacteria that cause pneumonia

The pneumococcal vaccines aren’t as well known as the COVID and flu shots, but they can really help protect against pneumonia in older adults, adults with certain immune-compromising conditions, and teens.

And in infants and toddlers, they can protect against life-threatening body-wide infections as well as less-serious, but still miserable, ear and lung infections.

“Talk to a health care provider who can make a specific recommendation about what formulation and schedule to get,” said Malani.

5. Stay home if you’re sick, and keep sick children home too

All three experts say it loud and clear: Don’t let “fear of missing out” on holiday events tempt you to go out anyway.

You could endanger vulnerable people you care about.

6. If you have an infant, or will be around an infant, get the vaccine that protects against whooping cough

The illness, also called pertussis, can land a baby in the hospital or even kill them.

Infants often get it from a teen or adult whose last dose of vaccine was too long ago to prevent them from spreading the virus.

Dehart says many people don’t even know they’re sick when they spread it.

Every adult should get a booster dose of the vaccine that protects against pertussis every 10 years.

It’s bundled with vaccines against two other diseases and called the Tdap vaccine.  

Every child should get four doses by the time they’re a year and a half old, and another booster when they’re 11 or 12.

7. Don’t wait to get the shots you’re eligible for. It takes time for your immune system to build up after each vaccine

The rule of thumb is that a full immune response to a vaccine takes two weeks, though partial protection begins before that, Malani says.

“If there’s a big event in your life – or simply the holidays and getting together with family,” get vaccinated as soon as possible, she said.

8. Wear masks in crowded public spaces and reduce your exposures before visiting vulnerable people

With many viruses circulating at once, putting on a mask on airplanes, at the mall, during worship services, or at your child’s school concert, could protect you from getting sick.

Cutting back on unmasked exposures to crowds in the days before you visit a new baby or a vulnerable adult could also help you avoid giving a holiday “gift” no one wants.

If you’re hosting a gathering or visiting others, improve air flow and filtration by keeping a window partly open, running the fan on the heating system or using an air purifier.

9. Go to the vaccination site you can reach fastest

Most pharmacies offer at least some vaccinations, though you may need to check with your insurance plan to make sure they will cover the cost of the COVID-19 vaccine at the pharmacy you want to go to.

If you don’t have insurance, use the vaccines.gov site or call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489) to find a place that’s offering no-cost vaccines through the Bridge Access Program.

Your city or county public health department is also likely a good source, and your regular primary care clinic should offer most vaccines.

Except in rare cases, you should not have to pay for any vaccine that’s officially recommended for you or your child.

10. Don’t hesitate to get multiple vaccines at once

Said Dehart, “There’s no reason not to get them together if you’re taking the time to go to the pharmacy. It saves a lot of time and it’s perfectly safe to get them together.”

In fact, there’s some evidence suggesting getting two vaccines at the same time can increase the effectiveness of both.

11. If you or your children get sick, get tested

Home tests for COVID-19 and new home tests for flu can help you know what’s making you or your child sick – and help you know if you or your teen could get treatment with Paxlovid for COVID-19, or you or your child could get Tamiflu for flu.

Both are prescription medicines that can reduce the risk of severe illness.

COVID tests are available for free by mail again.

You may also be able to get a free combination flu and COVID rapid test kit sent to you by the federal government, depending on your insurance status.

And everyone who has a positive test for flu or COVID can access free telehealth-based help with getting a prescription for antiviral medications.

There’s no home test for RSV.

But doctors also have access to higher-accuracy rapid tests for flu and RSV now, as well as “gold standard” PCR tests for COVID-19.

In addition to helping you know what you or your child has, tests can guide you on how long to stay away from other people or wear a mask in public.

Testing can also help you avoid getting antibiotics for illnesses caused by viruses.

After all, they won’t work, and using them could cause bacteria in your system to evolve and develop resistance to the drugs so they won’t work if you need them in the future.

12. Don’t believe everything you see on social media about vaccines

The misinformation about multiple vaccines has spread far and wide, so don’t take anything you see on social media or hear in a conversation as the truth without checking out official sources.

Seek out good sources of information by talking to your pharmacist, doctor or nurse practitioner, or by checking the vaccination websites run by the CDC and physician organizations such as the American Geriatrics Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Since its debut two years ago, the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus has demonstrated its remarkable adaptability and transmissibility, defying many virological preconceptions held prior to the pandemic. Its lineage has expanded to include a formidable array of descendants, exhibiting an enhanced ability to evade immune defenses and seek out new hosts. The possibility exists that Omicron could become an enduring presence in our lives, evolving much like the seasonal influenza virus. However, researchers caution that the virus harbors the potential to catch us off guard, particularly if we slacken our vigilance.

Stay informed! Keep up with the latest research on the COVID-19 virus in the Coronavirus channel on Newswise.

Computer simulation suggests mutant strains of COVID-19 emerged in response to human behavior

-Nagoya University

Study finds risk factors for severe COVID-19 cases in children

-UT Southwestern Medical Center

Long COVID happens in nursing homes, too, study finds

-Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan

What leads people to take action on disease prevention?

-Osaka University

Significant “post-COVID” resurgence in invasive meningococcal disease

-Institut Pasteur

Fourth dose of COVID vaccine boosts protection in patients with rheumatic disease

-Mass General Brigham

COVID-19 showed the importance of genomic surveillance – now we need it to help fight antimicrobial resistance, say researchers

-University of Cambridge

How tiny hinges bend the infection-spreading spikes of a coronavirus

-SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed new burdens on already disadvantaged groups and left pre-existing social inequalities in place

-Stockholm University

The Next Phase in Monitoring Wild Animals for COVID-19

-Tufts University

Survey finds many Americans are letting their guard down during respiratory illness season

-Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

WHO updates its guidance on treatments for COVID-19

-BMJ

 

Newswise — ROSEMONT, Ill.—To help ensure that patients with active substance use disorder, on medication-assisted treatment, or in abstinent recovery continue to receive high-quality, safe pain management and anesthesia care, the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) has published its updated analgesia and anesthesia practice considerations.

Substance use disorder (SUD) is a chronic brain disease characterized by the recurrent use of substances (e.g., alcohol, drugs) which causes progressive neurological and physiological changes related to judgement, decision making, learning, memory, and behavior control. Research confirms deaths from drug overdoses have more than doubled in the past eight years, from slightly over 52,000 in 2015 to more than 106,000 in 2021, due initially to the over-prescription of pain medications and more recently from the use of street drugs, especially those laced with fentanyl compounds.  

”Effective analgesia and anesthesia care for the substance use disorder patient involves managing the physiological and psychological implications of substance use, mitigating withdrawal, and preventing relapse,” said Daniel King, DNP, CRNA, CPPS, AANA Practice Committee chair. “The purpose of these practice considerations is to offer evidence-based guidance for the anesthesia professional in the provision of optimally safe care for the SUD patient. This includes developing an informative, interdisciplinary plan of care in collaboration with the patient. Additionally, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) are well equipped to deploy multimodal, opioid-sparing approaches in pain management, with responsible oversight that includes safe prescribing practices and discharge planning. This reflects an overall emphasis on the patient-centered approach to anesthesia care.”

AANA’s updated practice considerations offer insight on providing optimal care for all patients with substance abuse disorder, with special emphasis for patients using cannabis. Recommendation highlights include utilizing the Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test (CUDIT-R) to identify cannabis use disorder by tracking the frequency of cannabis use over six months.

“It is important for patients to know the risks and effects of cannabis in anesthesia delivery and share their use history accurately with their anesthesia provider,” said King. “The type of cannabinoid consumed, how it is consumed, frequency, chronicity, and reasons for use are all important factors in determining a patient’s perioperative course. It is critical for anesthesia providers to understand a patient’s history to inform a safe anesthetic and surgical experience.”

Given that regular users of cannabis many have more pain and nausea after surgery, multimodal analgesia is recommended to enhance the delivery of patient-centered care, to reduce surgical stress response, and limit the need for an opioid.  Multimodal analgesia refers to the use of more than one pharmacological class of analgesic medication used to treat pain symptoms. Other benefits of multimodal analgesia include early mobilization, decreased length of stay, faster functional recovery, decreased pain scores, and increased patient satisfaction.

CRNAs are highly educated, trained, and qualified anesthesia experts. They provide 50 million anesthetics per year in the United States, working in every setting in which anesthesia is delivered. CRNAs are the primary providers of anesthesia care in rural settings, enabling facilities in these medically underserved areas to offer obstetrical, surgical, pain management, and trauma stabilization services.

Newswise — A study by Dr Veronica Lamarche, from the Department of Psychology, discovered equal consumption was more important than levels of drunkenness.  
  
This was the case even when couples had drunk to excess and was the same across sexualities and genders.   
  
Dr Lamarche discovered that romantic rendezvous were seen most positively when couples drank the same low level of alcohol.  
  
And encounters where one partner was drunk and the other was sober were more likely to be seen as non-consensual, coercive, and dangerous.   
  
Dr Lamarche said: “I am interested in understanding the consequences of existing in a sexual world where our lived experiences with sex don’t always match legal definitions.   
  
“We’re finding that people rely heavily on contextual information to decide whether they believe non-violent sexual experiences are consensual or not.   
  
“People understand alcohol is a risk factor for non-consensual sex, but both partners being similarly drunk seems to challenge their assumptions about assault.”   
  
More than 500 British people participated in the research that unfolded across four studies and was published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.  
  
They were presented with a variety of scenarios and given details of how many shots had been consumed before sex.   
  
They were then asked to judge levels of coercion, sexual assault, perceived responsibility and if the encounter was likely sexual assault.  
  
It is hoped the study will help shine a light on perceptions of sexual assault and show how alcohol influences how people support victims of assault by reducing barriers to reporting and prosecution.  
  
Dr Lamarche added: “People not only rely on how much alcohol someone consumed prior to a sexual encounter, but more importantly whether partners were equally drunk.   
  
“We want victims to feel empowered to come forward, and this research can help us identify important barriers and biases that keep victims of sexual assault from getting the support they need.”  
  
Dr Lamarche worked with two undergraduates on the study Ellen Laughlin, Molly Pettitt and Dr Laurie James-Hawkins from the Department of Sociology. 

Newswise — Worries that surgery patients would have a tougher recovery if their doctors had to abide by a five-day limit on opioid pain medication prescriptions didn’t play out as expected, a new study finds.

Instead, patient-reported pain levels and satisfaction didn’t change at all for Michigan adults who had their appendix or gallbladder removed, a hernia repaired, a hysterectomy or other common operations after the state’s largest insurer put the limit in place, the study shows.

At the same time, the amount of opioid pain medication patients covered by that insurer received dropped immediately after the limit went into effect. On average, patients having these operations received about three fewer opioid-containing pills.

The study, which merges two statewide databases on patients covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM), is the first large study to evaluate whether opioid prescribing limits change patient experience after surgery.

It’s published in JAMA Health Forum by a team from Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s academic medical center.

Measuring the impact of limits from patients’ perspectives

The BCBSM limit of five days’ supply, which went into effect in early 2018, is even stricter than the seven-days’ supply limit put in place a few months later by the state of Michigan. Other major insurers and states have also implemented limits, most of which allow are seven-day limits.

Limits are designed to reduce the risk of long-term opioid use and opioid use disorder, as well as to reduce the risk of accidental overdose and the risk of unauthorized use of leftover pills.

“Opioid prescribing limits are now everywhere, so understanding their effects is crucial,” said Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D., the study’s lead author. “We know these limits can reduce opioid prescribing, but it hasn’t been clear until now whether they can do so without worsening patient experience.”

He noted that even the 15% of patients who had been taking opioids for other reasons before having their operations didn’t show an increase in pain or a decrease in satisfaction after the limit was put in place, even though opioid prescribing for these patients decreased. That decrease was actually contrary to the intent of the limit, which was only designed to reduce prescribing to patients who hadn’t taken opioids recently.

Chua and several of his co-authors belong to the U-M Opioid Research Institute and Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. In addition to his work on opioids, Chua is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the U-M Medical School and a member of the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center at U-M.

Some of the authors helped develop evidence-based surgical opioid prescribing guidelines published by U-M’s Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network (OPEN), a group that recommends prioritizing non-opioid pain relief and limiting prescriptions to no more than 10 opioid pills for most of the operations considered in the study.

How the study was done

For the new study, Chua and colleagues used data from the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative, which collects data on patients having common operations at 70 Michigan hospitals.

Funded by BCBSM as a collaborative quality initiative under its Value Partnerships effort, MSQC surveys patients about their pain, level of satisfaction and level of regret after their operations.

The team paired anonymized MSQC data with data on controlled substance prescription fills from the state’s prescription drug monitoring program, called MAPS.

In all, they were able to look at opioid prescribing and patient experience data from 1,323 BCBSM patients who had common operations in the 13 months before the five-day limit went into effect, and 4,722 patients who had operations in the 20 months after the limit went into effect.

About 86% of both groups were non-Hispanic white, patients’ average age was just under 49,  and just under a quarter of both groups had their operations on an emergency or urgent basis. Just under half were admitted to the hospital for at least one night.

About 27% of both groups had their gallbladders taken out laparoscopically, and a similar percentage had minor hernia repairs. About 10% had an appendectomy done laparoscopically, and a similar percentage had laparoscopic hysterectomies. The rest had more invasive procedures, like open hysterectomies major hernia repairs, or colon removal. 

The percentage of prescribers who prescribed opioids to their patients having these operations did not change, but the percentage of patients who filled a prescription for an opioid did, possibly because pharmacists rejected prescriptions that weren’t compliant with the BCBSM limit, Chua speculates.

Jennifer Waljee, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., senior author of the study, notes that the MSQC database doesn’t include all types of procedures, such as knee replacements and spine surgery, which typically require larger postoperative opioid prescriptions because of their associated pain.

She indicated that it’s important to understand the impact of opioid prescribing limits on the experiences of such patients, because limits have the most potential to worsen pain for these individuals. 

“Opioid prescribing limits may not worsen patient experience for common, less-invasive procedures like those we studied, because opioid prescriptions for most of these procedures were already under the maximum allowed by limits. But this may not be the case for painful operations where opioid prescribing was suddenly cut from an 8- to 10-day supply to a 5-day supply,” said Waljee, an associate professor of surgery at the Medical School and director of the U-M Center for Healthcare Outcomes & Policy.

She added, “The message of this study is not that we can simply go to five days’ supply across the board for operations. We need to understand the effects of these limits across a broad range of procedures and patients given how much pain needs vary in order to right size prescribing to patient need without resulting in additional harms.”

In addition to Chua and Waljee, the study’s authors are Thuy Nguyen, Ph.D. of the U-M School of Public Health, Chad Brummett, M.D., Amy Bohnert, Ph.D., Vidhya Gunaseelen, M.B.A., M.S., M.H.A., and Michael Englesbe, M.D. of the Medical School.

The study was supported by BCBSM Value Partnership infrastructure funding and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA057284, DA056438, DA048110).

Reference: Changes in Surgical Opioid Prescribing and Patient-Reported Outcomes After Implementation of an Insurer Opioid Prescribing Limit, JAMA Health Forum, https://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamahealthforum.2023.3541

Xylazine, an animal sedative that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for veterinary use only, has made its way into the illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) supply and has significantly increased in prevalence in recent years, likely due to its low cost, easy availability, and presumed enhanced “high.” Researchers reviewed pertinent xylazine research and pulled from their own clinical experience to offer new guidance on the care of patients exposed to this dangerous drug. Their review is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Newswise — Purdue Pharma is inextricably linked with the opioid crisis.

Owned by the Sackler family, the company is known for aggressively and deceptively marketing opioids —OxyContin in particular — to prescribing doctors. Public scrutiny of Purdue Pharma’s role in the opioid crisis increased sharply in the years following 2007, when the state of Kentucky filed a lawsuit against the company.

In 2015, a judge denied Purdue Pharma’s final request to prevent the case from proceeding to trial and allowed confidential documents from the case to be shared with other potential plaintiffs considering litigation against Purdue Pharma.

New research from the University of Washington examines the behavior of prescription opioid companies following those key events. The United States Supreme Court recently agreed to review Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy case, temporarily blocking the implementation of a $6 million deal.

After the 2015 lawsuit, Purdue Phama significantly decreased spending to promote OxyContin — its controversial, controlled-release oral formulation of oxycodone hydrochloride. But the UW study, recently published online in Strategic Management Journal, shows the lawsuit had the opposite effect on competing pharmaceutical companies. Competitors increased their spending instead, promoting opioids to physicians previously pursued by Purdue Pharma, including in counties where the opioid crisis was known to be severe.

“We can’t rely on companies to take warnings from lawsuits that happen against other companies,” said David Tan, co-author and associate professor of management in the UW Foster School of Business. “We hope that when one company gets sanctioned, other companies will take that as a warning and try to avoid those kinds of activities. The ideal is that private lawsuits against individual companies have the potential to bring about industry-wide change.

“Unfortunately, I think, rather than serve as a warning to the rest of the industry, this lawsuit created an opportunity for competitors by weakening Purdue’s marketing grasp over its lucrative OxyContin prescribers.”

This study suggests that private actions against individual companies, such as lawsuits and boycotts, can have unintended and counterproductive side effects. In this case, researchers found that when one company reduced its engagement in a questionable practice, its competitors saw an opportunity to fill the void.

The authors identified competing pharmaceutical companies using the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Opioid Analgesic Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy. The list includes branded and generic forms of oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl, among others.

Researchers then analyzed data from more than 600,000 prescribers who appeared in the Open Payments database of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which tracks money spent by pharmaceutical sales representatives to promote drugs to physicians.

From 2014 to 2015, Purdue Pharma sales representatives spent $1.5 million on food and beverage during visits to promote OxyContin to prescribers. That number dropped to only $54,000, a 94% decrease, in the years after the lawsuit from 2016 to 2017. Meanwhile, competing companies’ sales representatives increased their spending by 160% from 2016 to 2017.

The CMS database allowed researchers to see which doctors were targeted for promotional visits by pharmaceutical sales representatives, what drugs were promoted during these sales visits and what opioids these doctors prescribed. The authors also examined the average expected health care spending of prescribers’ patients, which helped to control for conditions that may legitimately call for pain management.

After Purdue Pharma reduced its spending to promote OxyContin, competitors increased spending to promote opioids to prescribers of OxyContin specifically. OxyContin contains larger doses per pill, but there are no other real differences between OxyContin and oxycodone – a fact Purdue Pharma was forced to publicly acknowledge as part of a plea deal in a 2007 federal case.

“We don’t see the same kind of jump in competitor promotional spending for oxycodone prescribers in general,” Tan said. “The increase in competitor promotional spending was targeted very specifically at prescribers of the OxyContin brand of oxycodone and at prescribers previously targeted by Purdue’s promotion of OxyContin.”

Researchers also used the database to determine if companies avoided areas known for being epicenters of the opioid crisis, examining how promotional spending by sales representatives varied based on the severity and nature of opioid overdose rates in prescribers’ counties.

“By the time of our study, it had already been well known that the opioid epidemic was out of control and that OxyContin was one of the most heavily abused forms of opioids, especially in regions like Appalachia,” Tan said.

The authors found that the increase in competitor spending occurred regardless of whether prescribers’ counties were above or below the national median in terms of opioid overdose deaths per capita. The increase also occurred when the percentage of opioid overdose deaths was due to prescription opioids as opposed to, for example, heroin or fentanyl. This suggests the increase in spending didn’t reflect an attempt by companies to avoid areas where the opioid epidemic was known to be severe and known to involve prescription opioids.

There have been important developments since the conclusion of the study in 2017, Tan said.  Local governments across the country have filed thousands of opioid-related lawsuits, leading several firms — Purdue Pharma included — to file for bankruptcy.

“That has served as a much more severe warning against the prescription opioid industry and encompasses a wide range of behavior,” Tan said. “Our study covers direct-to-physician promotion, but these lawsuits also extend to other undocumented forms of promotion by prescription opioid firms, such as allegedly funding nonprofit front organizations to influence prescribers’ beliefs about opioids. It took litigation on a national and industry-wide scale to approach something like the power of regulation. Unfortunately, it’s still not technically regulation. It’s still private. But the weight of these settlements has at least tempered behavior on the part of prescription opioid firms.”

Nicole V. West, who earned a doctorate from the UW in 2023 and is now an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, was a co-author.

For more information, contact Tan at [email protected].

According to a recently published article on Axios, women have higher out-of-pocket expenses for their health care than men despite having similar health insurance. Even when removing maternity care from the equation, women each year are paying $15.4 billion more out of pocket for health care. This so-called ‘Pink tax’ reflects the penalty levied on females for everything from tampons and razors—is alive and well in the U.S. healthcare system. Below are some of the latest headlines in the Women’s Health channel on Newswise. 

A New AI Model Has Been Developed to Improve Accuracy of Breast Cancer Tumor Removal

-University of North Carolina School of Medicine

Social media and low self-compassion behind rise in cosmetic surgery

-University of South Australia

Exposure to extreme heat associated with adverse health outcomes for pregnant women

-University of California, Irvine

Iron supplements provided in prenatal visits improved outcomes

-UT Southwestern Medical Center

Study finds the placenta holds answers to many unexplained pregnancy losses

-Yale University

Witchcraft accusations an ‘occupational hazard’ for female workers in early modern England

-University of Cambridge

Substance Abuse in Pregnancy Doubles Cardiovascular Risk

-Cedars-Sinai

In major breakthrough, researchers close in on preeclampsia cure

-University of Western Ontario (now Western University)

When it comes to starting a family, timing is everything

-University of Oxford

Using personalized medicine to target gynecological cancers

-University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences

Internet searches increased for self-managed abortions when Roe vs. Wade was overturned

-University of California, Irvine

Stem cell-derived components may treat underlying causes of PCOS

-University of Chicago Medical Center

High levels of particulate air pollution associated with increased breast cancer incidence

-National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

Newswise — PISCATAWAY, NJ — It’s “liquid courage,” not necessarily “beer goggles”: New research indicates that consuming alcohol makes you more likely to approach people you already find attractive but does not make others appear more attractive, according to a report in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

The conventional wisdom of alcohol’s effects is that intoxication makes others seem better looking. But, according to the new study, this phenomenon has not been studied systematically. Earlier research typically had participants simply rate other’s attractiveness while sober and while intoxicated based on photos.

But this new study added a more realistic element: the possibility of meeting the people being rated.

To conduct the research, lead investigator Molly A. Bowdring, Ph.D., of the Stanford Prevention Research Center in Palo Alto, Calif. (affiliated with University of Pittsburgh at the time of this study), and her dissertation advisor, Michael Sayette, Ph.D., brought in 18 pairs of male friends in their 20s to the laboratory to rate the attractiveness of people they viewed in photos and videos.

Participants were told that they may be given the opportunity to interact with one of those people in a future experiment. After providing attractiveness ratings, they were asked to select those with whom they would most like to interact.

Pairs of men came into the lab on two occasions. On one occasion, both men received alcohol to drink (up to about a blood alcohol concentration of .08%, the legal limit for driving in the United States) and on the other occasion, they both received a nonalcoholic beverage. The researchers had friend pairs in the lab to mimic the social interactions that would typically take place in a real drinking situation.

The researchers did not find evidence of beer goggles: Whether or not participants were intoxicated had no effect on how good looking they found others. “The well-known beer goggles effect of alcohol does sometimes appear in the literature but not as consistently as one might expect,” observes Sayette.

However, drinking did affect how likely the men were to want to interact with people they found attractive. When drinking, they were 1.71 times more likely to select one of their top-four attractive candidates to potentially meet in a future study compared with when they were sober.

Alcohol may not be altering perception but rather enhancing confidence in interactions, giving the men liquid courage to want to meet those they found the most attractive, something they may be much less likely to do otherwise.

These results could have implications for therapists and patients, the authors note.

“People who drink alcohol may benefit by recognizing that valued social motivations and intentions change when drinking in ways that may be appealing in the short term but possibly harmful in the long term,” says Bowdring.

BYLINE: Elizabeth Chapin

Newswise — LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 29, 2023) — Aug. 31 marks International Overdose Awareness Day, a time when attention is directed toward raising awareness about opioid overdose and ways to reverse the deadly effects.

One such way is naloxone, a medication that has become more available throughout Kentucky in recent years with the University of Kentucky’s HEALing Communities Study playing a significant role.

Naloxone is a medication that when given in time can quickly reverse the effects of opioids and help restore breathing in someone who is experiencing an overdose.

Increasing access to naloxone is one of the evidence-based strategies implemented by the HEALing Communities Study to reduce opioid deaths in Kentucky. Launched in 2019, the $87 million study is focused on 16 counties hardest hit by the opioid epidemic. The goal is to develop sustainable solutions that can be scaled across the Commonwealth.

So far, the study has helped thousands of Kentuckians get access to the lifesaving medication. Since the first unit of naloxone was distributed in April 2020, more than 86,000 units of naloxone have been distributed across the 16 counties participating in HEAL.

To put it into perspective — in 2019, the year before the HEAL intervention was launched, that number was just about 7,000, says Trish Freeman, Ph.D., a professor in the UK College of Pharmacy who leads the HEAL Prevention Team and coordinates HEAL’s naloxone education and distribution efforts in Kentucky.

In 2022, 2,127 Kentuckians died from a drug overdose, with 90% involving opioids. While Kentucky’s overdose death rate decreased by 5% last year, it’s still among the highest in the nation.

“No one should die from an overdose and naloxone is one of the most effective ways to intervene and save a life,” said Freeman. “By getting naloxone into the hands of more Kentuckians, we are saving lives today while informing the blueprint for the most effective way for communities to do so going forward.”

Most of the naloxone distributed by HEAL is delivered through partnerships with various community organizations and agencies including treatment, criminal legal system, social service and public health programs.

The study, which is broken down into two waves of eight counties each, has partnered with 245 agencies across all 16 counties. The HEAL Implementation Team, led by Hannah Knudsen, Ph.D., a professor in the UK College of Medicine, works hand in hand with partner agencies to provide the support needed to implement overdose education and naloxone distribution with their clients. 

Knudsen’s team of implementation facilitators meet with a wide range of agencies to share information about HEAL’s overdose education and naloxone distribution program and then work with agencies to establish a workflow and provide technical assistance to ensure effective implementation.

The HEAL Prevention team operates a naloxone distribution hub in the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research for partner agencies that also includes training materials, because education about overdose and how to use the medication is required. Under a standing order agreement, HEAL co-investigator Michelle Lofwall, M.D., professor in the UK College of Medicine, signs the order as the physician of record for all naloxone distributed.

The agency partnerships reach those at highest risk for overdose, especially within the criminal legal system, where HEAL has partnered with jails and prisons, drug court, pretrial services, police departments, and probation/parole programs.

The risk of overdose is increased when people are released from a correctional facility because tolerance for the drug can decrease significantly during a period of abstinence. After release, an attempt to use the same amount of opioid may lead to overdose or death, says Carrie Oser, Ph.D., professor in the UK College of Arts and Sciences and co-lead of the HEAL Criminal Legal System Team.

Most jails partnering with HEAL offer naloxone as part of the discharge process. Some, including the Madison County and Jefferson County detention centers, have opted to install “vending machines” in lobbies or discharge areas. The digital kiosks streamline tracking and mandatory training.

“The agencies we work with choose what works best for them given their unique staffing and organization needs. The most important thing is that people who are discharged are getting access to naloxone during this critical time,” said Oser.

Beyond agency distribution, naloxone is dispensed through the HEALing Communities Study comes from its own outreach team. HEAL prevention specialists reach people directly at venues like community events, social service agencies, businesses, schools and addiction treatment and recovery facilities.

In addition to educating people on how to recognize an overdose and properly administer naloxone, the team addresses a lot of myths and misperceptions people have.

“People need to know it’s safe to use on anyone and won’t hurt someone who isn’t overdosing,” said Gabi Deaton, a HEAL prevention specialist coordinator. “We also talk about the Good Samaritan law, which protects people from prosecution when they report a drug overdose. Our goal is to make sure they’re confident, equipped and ready to intervene in the case of an opioid emergency if they ever need to.”

Deaton serves as the prevention specialist for Campbell County and organizes the outreach efforts of her colleagues assigned to the seven other counties in the HEAL’s second wave.

While the team generally visits locations with people at higher risk of overdose, they reach a larger cross section of the public compared to the agencies. Their visibility helps reduce the stigma surrounding opioid use disorder and ensure that more family members, friends and bystanders are carrying naloxone. 

Deaton says people sometimes reach out to thank her after the naloxone she gave them is used to save a life. There are too many to remember them all, but she still keeps in touch with some who are now in recovery.

Soon, it will be easier to access naloxone nasal spray products, including brand name Narcan and its generic counterparts. These products were recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for sale over the counter (OTC) and should be available in pharmacies and other retail stores that sell OTC products by mid-October.

Overdose education and naloxone distribution by a wide range of agencies will likely still be needed to ensure that cost is not a barrier and that people learn now to effectively use naloxone to respond to an overdose.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UM1DA049406. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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