opioid crisis
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American Life Expectancy Continues To Drop, With Suicides And Drug Overdoses On The Rise
The health of the United States remains in decline, according to a series of new reports released Thursday by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Life expectancy in the U.S. has once again declined from the previous year, extending a years-long slide the likes of which we haven’t seen since the World War I…
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Americans’ Legal Opioid Use Hasn’t Budged Much Over The Past Decade
Above, pills containing a combination of the opioid oxycodone with acetaminophen, commonly sold as the brand name drug Percocet.Photo: Patrick Sison (AP) Despite a growing awareness of the dangers and risks of opioid addiction among doctors and patients, the average amount of opioids prescribed to Americans over the past decade has barely budged, suggests a…
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Opioids Caused 1 In 5 Deaths Of Young People In The US In 2016
Despite an outpouring of resources, like greater access to the overdose antidote naloxone, opioids continue to kill Americans at a record pace.Photo: Spencer Platt (Getty Images) It’s no secret that opioids kill more Americans annually than ever before. But a new study published Friday in JAMA Network Open highlights just how devastating the crisis has…
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Fentanyl Overdoses May Cause Lasting Amnesia
Starting in 2015, doctors in Massachusetts began noticing a wave of typically young patients coming down with unexplained, sometimes permanent short-term memory loss. The only connection found between these patients was a history of recreational drugs; either heroin or cocaine. But these drugs almost never cause the kind of brain damage that results in amnesia,…