High Suicide Rates, Opioid Epidemic At Top Of New CDC Director’s Priorities
Robert Redfield, in his first interview in the position of CDC director, talked about the importance of realizing the role firearms play in the country's suicide rate as well as his personal connection to the opioid crisis. In other public health news: the "marshmallow test," DNA collection, dementia and guns, meditation, palliative care and more.
The Wall Street Journal:
New CDC Director Targets Opioids, Suicide And Pandemics
The nation’s rapidly rising suicide rate is a tragedy, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is doing more to address two of the most common ways people take their lives: substance abuse and firearms, the agency’s new director said in his first interview in the role. “It should bring people to have pause,” Robert Redfield said of the suicide rate, in an interview that also touched on his goals for ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S., improving immunization rates and strengthening public-health systems in countries where epidemics are a risk. (McKay, 6/25)
Los Angeles Times:
The Surprising Thing The 'Marshmallow Test' Reveals About Kids In An Instant-Gratification World
Here’s a psychological challenge for anyone over 30 who thinks “kids these days” can’t delay their personal gratification: Before you judge, wait a minute. It turns out that a generation of Americans now working their way through middle school, high school and college are quite able to resist the prospect of an immediate reward in order to get a bigger one later. Not only that, they can wait a minute longer than their parents’ generation, and two minutes longer than their grandparents’ generation could. (Healy, 6/26)
The Wall Street Journal:
Global DNA Collection Kicks Off In Africa, Aiming To Decode Psychiatric Disease
Several dozen African clinics and hospitals are the latest front in the battle to decipher the genetic roots of the little-understood diseases schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Scientists currently search for hints in genetic databases largely extracted from European and North American populations. That means they may be missing genetic variants in other populations that could help explain how the diseases develop—and how to treat them. (Whalen, 6/25)
Kaiser Health News:
Dementia And Gun Safety: When Should Aging Americans Retire Their Weapons?
With a bullet in her gut, her voice choked with pain, Dee Hill pleaded with the 911 dispatcher for help. “My husband accidentally shot me,” Hill, 75, of The Dalles, Ore., groaned on the May 16, 2015, call. “In the stomach, and he can’t talk, please …” Less than four feet away, Hill’s husband, Darrell Hill, a former local police chief and two-term county sheriff, sat in his wheelchair with a discharged Glock handgun on the table in front of him, unaware that he’d nearly killed his wife of almost 57 years. (Aleccia and Bailey, 6/26)
The Washington Post:
Can The ‘Immortal Cells’ Of Henrietta Lacks Sue For Their Own Rights?
A lawyer representing the eldest son and two grandsons of Henrietta Lacks, whose “immortal cells” have been the subject of a best-selling book, a TV movie, a family feud, cutting-edge medical research and a multibillion-dollar biotech industry, announced last week that she plans to file a petition seeking “guardianship” of the cells. “The question we are dealing with is ‘Can the cells sue for mistreatment, misappropriation, theft and for the profits earned without their consent?’ ” said Christina J. Bostick, who is representing Lawrence Lacks, the eldest son of Lacks, and grandsons Lawrence Lacks Jr. and Ron Lacks. (Brown, 6/25)
The Wall Street Journal:
New Research Delves Into Sexual Fantasies
What do you want in bed? Sexual fantasies are among the most taboo of topics—awkward to talk about, even (or perhaps especially) with a partner we know well. They can sometimes feel embarrassing or shameful, even if we tell no one. We wonder: Where did this come from? Is it normal? (Bernstein, 6/25)
The Wall Street Journal:
From Meditation To Medication: Headspace Has A Prescription Strategy
You might know Headspace as a meditation app. What if it were also a prescription medication? The California-based company recently launched Headspace Health, a subsidiary whose executives’ goal is to apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a prescription meditation app by 2020. The company will soon launch a series of clinical trials to support an application. (Reddy, 6/25)
Sacramento Bee:
Palliative Care Is An Effective Way To Help Patients Cope With Illness
Provided along with curative treatments, palliative care emphasizes pain and symptom management, care management and coordination, assistance with treatment decisions, and 24-hour-a-day access to the palliative team's nurses and doctors. (Anderson, 6/25)
Georgia Health News:
Experimental Dressings Could Heal Wounds Better And Cheaper
These wound treatments are often costly, especially when there’s an effort to prevent infection or scarring. However, new wound dressings are being developed in Georgia that could mimic the body’s natural healing process and may not only prevent infection but also reduce the cost of treatment. (Boss, 6/22)
