Something worrisome was happening at Spurwink, a mental health clinic in Portland, Maine. Many patients being treated for opioid addiction had gone missing for days, even weeks, skipping prescription refills and therapy appointments. The counselors feared their patients were relapsing on fentanyl. But those who reappeared did not show theContinue Reading
Hundreds of thousands of Americans stand to soon lose their access to cheaper weight-loss drugs, with a federal crackdown on copycat versions threatening to disrupt treatment and raise costs. The Food and Drug Administration has ordered producers and sellers of the less expensive products to wind down operations in theContinue Reading
The percentage of American children estimated to have autism spectrum disorder increased in 2022, continuing a long-running trend, according to data released on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among 8-year-olds, one in 31 were found to have autism in 2022, compared with 1 in 36 inContinue Reading
Medicare negotiations on drug prices can happen sooner for pills than many drugs that are injected. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Spencer Platt/Getty Images President Trump signed an executive action Tuesday intended to lower prescription drug prices for Americans. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters ahead ofContinue Reading
Congress could implement work requirements as part of revamping and downsizing Medicaid. vm/Getty Images/E+ vm/Getty Images/E+ For many years, Eric Wunderlin’s health issues made it hard to find stable employment. Struggling to manage depression and diabetes, Wunderlin worked part-time, minimum-wage retail jobs around Dayton, Ohio, making so little that heContinue Reading
Six months after Hurricane Helene, the landscape of western North Carolina is still scarred. A team of CDC workers was about to go door to door to check on people when they lost their jobs. Sean Rayford/Getty Images Sean Rayford/Getty Images In and around Asheville, N.C., there are still visibleContinue Reading
The quest to create an A.I. therapist has not been without setbacks or, as researchers at Dartmouth thoughtfully describe them, “dramatic failures.” Their first chatbot therapist wallowed in despair and expressed its own suicidal thoughts. A second model seemed to amplify all the worst tropes of psychotherapy, invariably blaming theContinue Reading
President Trump’s decision to move a step closer to imposing tariffs on imported medicines poses considerable political risk, because Americans could face higher prices and more shortages of critical drugs. The Trump administration filed a federal notice on Monday saying that it had begun an investigation into whether imports ofContinue Reading
Q: Several people in my family have had cancer, and I’m terrified of getting it, too. How can I reduce my odds? It’s true that having a family history of cancer raises your risk of developing the disease. But getting sick is not inevitable. In a recent study, researchers usedContinue Reading
Proper asparagus-eating etiquette has long been a subject of debate: Should you cut the treelike spears with a fork and knife, or are they an acceptable finger food? When it comes to asparagus’s nutritional value, though, there’s little dispute. Here are its most notable health attributes, plus fresh ways toContinue Reading
