Overdose Deaths Plummeted In 2024 But Still Higher Than Pre-Covid: CDC

AP: US Overdose Deaths Fell 27% Last Year, The Largest One-Year Decline Ever Seen
There were 30,000 fewer U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2024 than the year before — the largest one-year decline ever recorded. An estimated 80,000 people died from overdoses last year, according to provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday. That’s down 27% from the 110,000 in 2023. The CDC has been collecting comparable data for 45 years. The previous largest one-year drop was 4% in 2018, according to the agency’s National Center for Health Statistics. (Stobbe and Mulvihill, 5/14)

On mental health —

KFF Health News: Mental Health And Substance Misuse Treatment Is Increasingly A Video Chat Or Phone Call Away
More Californians are talking to their therapists through a video screen or by phone than in person, marking a profound shift in how mental health care is delivered as record-setting numbers seek help. While patients and providers say teletherapy is effective and easier to get than in-person services, experts in the field noted that teletherapy often requires a skilled mental health practitioner trained to pick up subtle communication cues. (Reese, 5/15)

Fierce Healthcare: Survey Highlights Unique Mental Health Needs Across Generations
More than half of Americans say their mental health became important to them in the last five years, a new survey found. Conducted in April by Rula Health, a virtual behavioral health company, the survey reached more than 2,000 U.S. adults and aimed to understand the current state of mental health. The findings revealed more than half of Americans have accessed mental health services at some point in their lives. Of those, more than a quarter are currently in therapy and another quarter sought therapy within the past year. (Gliadkovskaya, 5/14)

CBS News: Men More Likely To Die Of "Broken Heart Syndrome" Compared To Women, Study Finds
Men are twice as likely to die from the stress-related heart condition commonly called "broken heart syndrome" compared to women, according to new research. The condition, formally known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is associated with severe emotional distress or stressful events, such as the death of a loved one. Symptoms typically include chest discomfort, shortness of breath, heart palpitations and arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat. A study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association analyzed nearly 200,000 U.S. adults with data from 2016 to 2020. It found that despite the condition being more common among women, the death rate among them was 5.5%, compared to 11.2% for men. (Moniuszko, 5/14)

In other public health news —

CNN: Arsenic And Cadmium Levels Dangerously High In Store-Bought Rice, Report Finds. What You Can Do 
Samples of store-bought rice from more than 100 different brands purchased in the United States contained dangerously high levels of arsenic and cadmium, according to a new report released exclusively to CNN. (LaMotte, 5/15)

CIDRAP: Lower Fitness Levels Before Infection Linked To Long COVID
A study conducted in Dallas of 1,666 COVID-19 patients, of which 80 (5%) had long COVID, reveals that those with long COVID, on average, had lower pre‐COVID fitness. The study was published yesterday in the Journal of the American Heart Association. (Soucheray, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: How Healthy Are Americans? Chronic Disease, Life Expectancy And Healthcare In Charts.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made combating chronic disease a rallying cry as he looks to overhaul the health department and “Make America Healthy Again.” So how healthy is America, historically? It isn’t that we used to be healthier, data show, but the biggest threats have changed. (Abbott, 5/14)

CIDRAP: Flu Vaccine Efficacy 41% Overall And 26% In Older Adults, Per 2023-24 Estimates
Estimated influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) in California during the 2023-24 respiratory virus season was 41% against lab-confirmed flu and 68% against influenza B, but just 32% against influenza A and 26% among older adults. These findings, published yesterday in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, were made possible by California's 2023 mandate requiring flu vaccination reporting and all flu lab test results to the state immunization information system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-led research team said. (Van Beusekom, 5/14)

MedPage Today: Here's How We Know Vaccines Are Safe And Effective
Statements from a federal official about potential changes to the way vaccines are evaluated have left experts with more questions than answers. Earlier this month, an apparent policy change appeared in a statement to the Washington Post in which an HHS spokesperson told the paper that "All new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials prior to licensure -- a radical departure from past practices." (Fiore, 5/14)