SACRAMENTO — California state lawmakers this year are continuing their progressive tilt on health policy with dozens of proposals including a ban on a Froot Loops ingredient and free condoms for high schoolers. As states increasingly fracture along partisan lines, California Democrats are stamping their supermajority on legislation that they will consider until they adjourn at the end of August. But the cost of these proposals will be a major factor given the enormity of the state’s deficit, currently estimated at between $38 billion and $73 billion. Health Coverage Lawmakers are again conside ..read more

Un joven de 17 años, con el pelo rubio desgreñado, se subió a la balanza del Centro de Salud Familiar Tri-River de Uxbridge, en Massachusetts. Después que lo pesaran, caminó hacia un consultorio decorado con calcomanías de planetas y personajes de dibujos animados. Una enfermera le tomó la presión arterial. Un pediatra le preguntó por sus estudios, su vida familiar y sus amigos. Parecía un examen de rutina para adolescentes, de los miles que se hacen a diario en consultas pediátricas en el país. Hasta que el doctor Safdar Medina le preguntó: “¿Tienes deseos de consumir opioides?”. El paciente ..read more

Una mañana de hace casi 10 años Karla Adkins se miró en el espejo retrovisor de su auto y advirtió que el blanco de sus ojos se había vuelto amarillo. En ese entonces tenía 36 y trabajaba como médica de enlace para un sistema hospitalario de la costa de Carolina del Sur ayudando a fortalecer los vínculos entre los médicos. Desde sus 20 años, había estado luchando en secreto contra el consumo excesivo de alcohol, convencida de que la ayudaba a calmar sus ansiedades. Adkins comprendió que ese color amarillento de sus ojos era producto de la ictericia. Aun así, no imaginó que fuera posible que le ..read more

A 17-year-old boy with shaggy blond hair stepped onto the scale at Tri-River Family Health Center in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. After he was weighed, he headed for an exam room decorated with decals of planets and cartoon characters. A nurse checked his blood pressure. A pediatrician asked about school, home life, and his friendships. This seemed like a routine teen checkup, the kind that happens in thousands of pediatric practices across the U.S. every day — until the doctor popped his next question. “Any cravings for opioids at all?” asked pediatrician Safdar Medina. The patient shook his head ..read more

When Karla Adkins looked in the rearview mirror of her car one morning nearly 10 years ago, she noticed the whites of her eyes had turned yellow. She was 36 at the time and working as a physician liaison for a hospital system on the South Carolina coast, where she helped build relationships among doctors. Privately, she had struggled with heavy drinking since her early 20s, long believing that alcohol helped calm her anxieties. She understood that the yellowing of her eyes was evidence of jaundice. Even so, the prospect of being diagnosed with alcohol-related liver disease wasn’t her first con ..read more

VALLEJO — Three people gathered in a classroom on a recent rainy afternoon listened intently as Derrick Cordero urged them to turn their negative feelings around. “What I’m hearing is that you’re a self-starter,” he told one participant, who had taken up gardening but yearned for a community with which to share the hobby. Cordero, 48, is guiding the discussion at Holding Hope, a weekly therapy group for people struggling with mental health. Anyone receiving mental health services through Solano County can participate. A former member, Cordero is now the group’s volunteer peer leader. He initia ..read more

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — From 2006 through 2014, more than 81 million painkiller pills were shipped to this city and surrounding rural Cabell County. The arrival of prescription opioids onto seemingly every block of Huntington, a city of about 46,000 people, augured the first wave of an overdose crisis. Heroin followed, then fentanyl. Residents remember Aug. 15, 2016, as the darkest day because on that afternoon and evening, 28 people overdosed in the city. But Huntington had shouldered collective trauma before. On Nov. 14, 1970, Southern Airways Flight 932 crashed into a hillside just outside Hunt ..read more

Proveedores de salud y expertos en adicciones advierten que una iniciativa en California, que ayuda a pacientes con trastorno por consumo de sustancias a iniciar tratamientos de largo plazo luego de recibir el alta de salas de emergencias, tiene una estructura de financiamiento inestable, por lo que algunos empleados críticos ya han renunciado. Los partidarios del programa de navegadores de salud conductual de CA Bridge, que se lanzó en 2022, dicen que depender una sola partida de financiación dificulta que los hospitales retengan a los navegadores, en medio de una creciente crisis de drogas ..read more

TREASURE ISLAND, Florida. — Andrew McClave Jr. amaba levantar pesas. El mesero de 6’ 4” de altura parecía un fisicoculturista. Hasta posó para una foto inflando sus músculos con el ex luchador profesional Hulk Hogan. “Era muy dedicado al entrenamiento”, dijo su padre, Andrew McClave Sr. “A tal punto que si no iba, era como si no hubiese tomado su medicamento”. Pero su pasión tuvo un precio. Según un informe policial, un amigo le dijo a la Policía de Treasure Island que McClave, de 36 años, sufría problemas de espalda y tomaba pastillas para el dolor que no habían sido recetadas por un doctor ..read more

People keep talking about ketamine. The drug has become a favorite of celebrities, billionaires, and ordinary patients, many of whom view it as a potential miracle drug for depression and other mental health conditions. Whether on Facebook or Instagram, patients and clinics alike are giddy about the possibilities. But it is a drug that can be abused and can be deadly. Thus, ketamine is the latest challenge for Meta, the social media platforms’ parent company, which for years has struggled to moderate posts and ads touting health-related products like weight loss supplements and dodgy covid-19 ..read more