New data shows rising repeat ER visits for opioid-related emergencies

WASHINGTON, D.C.–The emergency department is being increasingly utilized as a patient’s best or only treatment option for opioid use disorder (OUD). New analysis in Annals of Emergency Medicine shows that the prevalence of patients who visited emergency departments at four Indiana hospital systems for repeat opioid-related emergencies jumped from 8.8 percent of all opioid-related visits…

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Preclinical study links human gene variant to THC reward in adolescent females

A common variation in a human gene that affects the brain’s reward processing circuit increases vulnerability to the rewarding effects of the main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis in adolescent females, but not males, according to preclinical research by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. As adolescence represents a highly sensitive period of brain development with the highest…

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The Lancet: Preliminary evidence suggests that new coronavirus cannot be passed from mother to child late in pregnancy

Evidence of intrauterine vertical transmission was assessed by testing for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, formerly the 2019 novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV) in amniotic fluid, cord blood, and neonatal throat swab samples from six pregnancies. All samples were negative. Study also evaluated clinical characteristics of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease…

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