Category: Public Health

Purdue Pharma’s Sales Pitch Downplayed Risks Of Opioid Addiction

Through a widely circulated brochure and a videotape of testimonials, the maker of OxyContin stressed patients’ right to opioid treatment for pain.

Voters To Settle Dispute Over Ambulance Employee Break Times

Unlike most other workers, private-ambulance employees are frequently called away from their meals and rest breaks to respond to emergency calls, but there’s no law explicitly allowing that practice. Proposition 11 would change that, but some say its real purpose is to get California’s largest ambulance company out of costly litigation.

‘No One Is Ever Really Ready’: Aid-In-Dying Patient Chooses His Last Day

With its expansion to Hawaii this year, medical aid-in-dying is now approved in eight U.S. jurisdictions. Even when legal, the controversial practice of choosing to die after a terminal diagnosis is difficult, said one Seattle man who shared his final deliberations.

Advances In Treating Hep C Lead To New Option For Transplant Patients

The opioid epidemic has increased the number of donated organs. Until recently, though, organs from donors who died of drug overdoses were often discarded because an estimated 30 percent of them were infected with hepatitis C.

Clinicians Who Learn Of A Patient’s Opioid Death Modestly Cut Back On Prescriptions

A study published Thursday shows that doctors, dentists and other medical providers cut overall opioid dosages by nearly 10 percent after receiving notification of a death from a medical examiner and information on safe prescribing.

Clinicians Who Learn Of A Patient’s Opioid Death Modestly Cut Back On Prescriptions

A study published Thursday shows that doctors, dentists and other medical providers cut overall opioid dosages by nearly 10 percent after receiving notification of a death from a medical examiner and information on safe prescribing.

Learning To Live Well With Dementia

Two leading experts on caring for people with Alzheimer’s offer ways to make life better for patients and their caregivers.

As Opioid Crisis Rages, Some Trade ‘Tough Love’ For Empathy

An approach known as Community Reinforcement and Family Training, or CRAFT, coaches families to deal with a loved one’s substance abuse with compassion.

Trying To Pinpoint Hurricane’s True Toll, Researchers Say 1,139 Died In Puerto Rico

The estimate, published in the journal JAMA, dwarfs the government’s toll of 64 but is far lower than another highly touted analysis.

How Rival Opioid Makers Sought To Cash In On Alarm Over OxyContin’s Dangers

Fentanyl and other painkillers marketed as safer than Purdue Pharma’s blockbuster drug left their own trail of overdose deaths.