After Unplanned Pregnancies, European Regulators Set To Release Study Of ‘Natural Cycles’ App Approved By FDA
While touted by the FDA as a safe and effective form of contraception if used carefullly, Natural Cycles is raising eyebrows overseas, highlighting the difficulties regulators face in different countries with new technologies. Public health news also examines health disparities and premature babies; implantable devices for treating mental health problems; teens who prefer online chatting to the real thing; and the causes of infants' projectile vomiting.
Stat:
Controversial Contraception App Natural Cycles Drawing Scrutiny Overseas
European regulators are ramping up their scrutiny of a controversial app that its backers hail as a side-effect-free alternative to hormonal birth control pills — and which the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. just cleared last month. The Swedish Medical Products Agency is set to release the findings of a monthslong investigation into the app, Natural Cycles, as soon as this week. (Sheridan, 9/11)
CNN:
Premature Birth Study Highlights Disparities In Health
A new study suggests that black and Hispanic premature babies, compared with white premature babies, had a two- to four-fold increased risk of four severe neonatal health problems. Those health problems included necrotizing enterocolitis, which impacts tissue in the intestine, and intraventricular hemorrhage, which is bleeding in certain areas of the brain, both of which can be deadly; bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a lung condition that might result in long-term breathing difficulty for some; and retinopathy of prematurity, an eye disorder that can be potentially blinding. (Howard, 9/10)
The Wall Street Journal:
Brain Data Could Read Moods, Potentially Treat Depression
Can mood be decoded from brain data? The work is part of a larger movement aimed at developing better, more personalized therapies for psychiatric conditions like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder using deep brain stimulation, a procedure that requires surgery and is highly invasive. The approach is similar to treatments already in use for movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. (Hernandez, 9/10)
The Wall Street Journal:
Most Teens Prefer To Chat Online, Rather Than In Person
More than two-thirds of teens say they would rather communicate with their friends online than in person, according to a new study that comes as tech companies are trying to help parents and children monitor the time spent online. The study, from the nonprofit Common Sense Media, is an update of a similar survey conducted in 2012 that was one of the first to document the influence of digital media on teens. It lands as Silicon Valley’s technology titans—including Facebook Inc., Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google—are trying to address rising parental concerns about whether too much screen time can be hurtful. (Morris, 9/10)
NPR:
Why Do Kids Vomit So Much? (And When Should You Be Worried?)
When Linda Tock heard her 5-year-old telling her he was going to be sick, she moved quickly. She sprinted for a trash can, ready to run upstairs to help her son, with her husband, Simon, close behind her. Then it happened: a rain of vomit from the balcony above. "I put the trash can over my head," Tock recalls. "We just got showered." Puke splashed onto every surface — and even into her unlucky husband's open mouth. (Blakemore, 9/10)
