Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Experts Find Flaws With Groundbreaking 2020 Study On Pregnant Women Addicted To Opioids
ProPublica: Dr. Craig Towers’ Research On Pregnant Opioid Users Has Major Flaws, Auditors And Experts Say
When Dr. Craig Towers moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2010, the high-risk obstetrician encountered a crisis unlike anything he’d seen. Towers, who had practiced for 25 years in California and Wisconsin, found himself caring for an unusual number of pregnant women addicted to painkillers — and delivering newborns who were suffering withdrawal symptoms. Those babies, born shaking and inconsolable and who required weeks of specialized care, were becoming tragic symbols of the region’s raging opioid epidemic. “We were inundated,” Towers later told the Knoxville News Sentinel. (Yurkanin, 8/24)
On maternal mental health —
CNN: Maternal Mental Health Is Making Headlines. Experts Say It’s Long Overdue
Adrienne Griffen had just given birth to her second child in 2001. The “baby blues” that had quickly subsided after her first pregnancy did not seem to be going away after her second – and they were much more intense. When she talked to her doctor, they abruptly informed her of their duty to call Child Protective Services if she hurt her children. “I am here to get help, so I don’t hurt my children,” she replied. (Mascarenhas, 8/23)
AP: Defense Rests In Lindsay Clancy’s Murder Trial
The defense rested its case Friday in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial after eliciting several days of testimony about her mental state before and after she strangled her three young children. Prosecutors then began calling rebuttal witnesses in the trial, which is likely entering its final days. Closing arguments are expected next week. Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of her children Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, who ranged from 8 months to 5 years old. (Willingham and Casey, 8/21)
AP: As The Clancy Case Highlights Postpartum Psychosis, A Mom Stricken By It Shares Her Story Of Hope
About two weeks after giving birth, Bridget María Chesterton was curled up on the bathroom floor, saying things that made little sense. Later, in the emergency room, she kept repeating, “What’s going on?” She’d lost touch with reality. The family eventually learned that Chesterton had postpartum psychosis, a severe mental health disorder thrust into the spotlight by the case of Lindsay Clancy, a Massachusetts woman on trial for strangling her three children. A key question is whether postpartum psychosis drove Clancy to do it. (Ungar, 8/23)
On IVF and menopause —
The Washington Post: Why Some Couples Are Combining A European Vacation With Their IVF Treatments
In the summer of 2024, Emilie and Justin Solomon found themselves on a top-secret mission in Greece. Their family and friends thought the adventure-loving couple was on another jet-setting vacation, but they were keeping something else under wraps: They had turned off their phone locations to hide visits to a Greek clinic where they were seeking help to get pregnant. (Dawson, 8/22)
The Hill: Drugmakers Warn Of Estrogen Patch Shortage For Menopause Treatments
The pharmaceutical industry is warning that estrogen patches continue to be in shortage in the U.S. as manufacturers struggle to keep up with increased demand linked to federal policy changes issued earlier this year, even as regulators have yet to recognize a lack in supply. Manufacturers first reported issues with supplying demand earlier this year after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in November lifted the black box warning on estrogen patches containing estradiol that had suggested the medications could accelerate preexisting breast cancers. (Choi, 8/21)
