Weekly ATOD & Advocacy Recap week ending November 14, 2014

The content of this email does not represent the official views or policies of NCADD of Middlesex County, Inc. The content has been collected from a variety of sources and is provided for informational purposes only. The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by NCADD of the linked web sites, or the information, products or services contained therein. 

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Medicare’s Rising Costs for Drug Tests

A Wall Street Journal analysis of Medicare billing data shows payments for high-tech drug tests to some doctors and laboratories have soared in recent years. The surge is a reaction to fears that pain specialists have overprescribed “opioid” painkillers. It is also a lucrative side business for some doctors that costs Medicare millions—and some experts say not all the tests are necessary. Here’s what you need to know about urine drug testing. Please click here to continue.

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Doctors Cash In on Drug Tests for Seniors, and Medicare Pays the Bill

Pain specialists order costly tests for illegal drugs such as cocaine and angel dust, which few seniors ever use. Please click here to continue.

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Medicare to Cover Lung Cancer Screening for Long-Time Smokers

Annual lung cancer screenings for long-term smokers may soon be covered by Medicare, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Monday. The reimbursement proposal would cover annual CT scans for people aged 55 to 74 with a smoking history of 30 pack-years who still smoke or who quit within the last 15 years. Pack years are determined by multiplying the number of packs smoked daily by the number of years a person has smoked. Please click here to continue.

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The Life of a Pot Critic: Clean, With Citrus Notes

Jake Browne was seated in a yellow suede chair, carefully rotating a marijuana bud between his fingers. “I’m looking for bugs, mildew, things I wouldn’t want to ingest,” he said, leaning forward to hold the nickel-size flower up to the light. He paused, then took a sip of water from a cup with a Miley Cyrus hologram down its side. “This looks clean,” he concluded. Please click here to continue.

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Treating Depression in Primary Care: Are Biomarkers the Key?

Depression is one of the world's most common chronic illnesses, and it remains undertreated despite large-scale efforts to change physicians' practices. Part of the difficulty in treating depression is due to confusion over which antidepressant to prescribe to an individual patient. Please click here to continue.

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Work to Join Public Health, Primary Care Moves Ahead: Breaking Down Silos

Public health workers and primary care physicians may work toward the same goal — healthier people — but bringing the two fields together is not a simple task. Just ask Catherine McLaughlin. Please click here to continue.

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iPhone app empowers patients to independently manage alcohol addiction

One of the lesser areas covered by the digital health movement is mental health, yet mental health and substance use play important roles in physical health. Medical treatment costs for those with both chronic medical and comorbid mental health and substance use disorders can be two to three times as high as those without such comorbid conditions, according to the 2014 American Psychiatric Association’s Milliman Report. Alcoholism, in particular, afflicts 17 million adults, and is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Please click here to continue.

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How Will Legalization Affect the Language Around Marijuana?

With Alaska, Oregon, and the District of Columbia passing measures on Nov. 4 to legalize recreational marijuana, joining Colorado and Washington as U.S. regions where the sale of the drug is (or will be) legal, I thought it might be worth taking a look at the language surrounding the contested cannabis plant. Please click here to continue.

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Bad News for People Who Think Alcohol Is 'Healthy'

We’ve all seen these headlines, pithily summing up research on why a modest amount of alcohol every day won’t harm, and in fact may help, our cardiac health. Please click here to continue.

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Non-Addictive Narcotic Painkillers May Be Close

Opioid painkillers have long been the gold standard for severe pain but come with a terrible dark side: They are the main culprits in a prescription drug abuse crisis that has killed thousands and spawned a resurgence of heroin in Kentucky and across the nation. Please click here to continue.

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NIDA's Role in Providing Marijuana for Research

NIDA supports a drug supply program, which provides controlled substances (including research-grade marijuana) to researchers for scientific purposes. The marijuana supply program operates pursuant to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs which requires each Nation to designate a single official source of marijuana for medicinal research. In the United States, NIDA has been designated the responsible agency. Please click here to continue.

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Pot-Friendly States Teaming up on Capitol Hill

Members of Congress from states with legal pot are banding together to tell their colleagues on Capitol Hill not to interfere with state drug laws. Please click here to continue.

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Marijuana Patient Sues after Firm Won't Hire Her

A graduate student has sued a textile company for refusing to hire her for a two-month internship because she uses medical marijuana to treat frequent and debilitating migraine headaches, a decision her lawyer calls discrimination. Please click here to continue.

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Mental health: Depression needs large human-genetics studies

Five decades of work on antidepressant drugs have not made them more likely to lift people out of depression. Medications and psychotherapies help some people with the disease, but fail many others. In a study conducted in real clinical settings, a common antidepressant produced a response in just under half of the participants, and achieved full remission in only 28%. Please click here to continue.

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Technology's Latest Quest: Tracking Mental Health

You can now count your steps, measure your glucose levels, monitor your blood pressure and track your caloric intake from your phone or high-tech wristband. But for those dealing with depression rather than diabetes, or trying to keep tabs on their bipolar disorder rather than their weight, the pickings are slimmer. Please click here to continue.

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Weekly ATOD & Advocacy Recap week ending August 8, 2014

Don’t Blame Legal Medical Marijuana for Increasing Teen Use

Legalizing medical marijuana doesn’t lead to a rise in use among teens, according to a new study. Contrary to a widespread assumption that legalizing medical marijuana will increase substance use among teenagers, a recent study conducted by D. Mark Anderson, Benjamin Hansen and Daniel I. Rees and published by National Bureau of Economic Research found that the rising use of marijuana by high school students can be explained by other factors. Click here to continue reading.

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Researchers look at prescription opioid abuse among young adults in NYC

The prevalence of heroin use has been rising steadily in the U.S in recent years. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the number of individuals reporting past year heroin use almost doubled between 2007 (373,000) and 2012 (669,000). Emerging evidence suggests the increase may be linked to prescription opioid (PO) users who transition from oral and/or intranasal PO use to heroin use, with POs providing the entryway to regular opioid use, and ultimately, heroin injection. This drug-use trajectory appears to have become increasingly common over the past ten years; in one study, 77.4% of participants in a 2008-2010 cohort reported using POs nonmedically prior to initiating heroin use, as compared to 66.8% in the 2002-2004 cohort. Click here to continue reading.

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Obamacare Leads to Surge in Mental-Health Treatment

A provision in the health care reform law allowing parents to keep their adult children on their health-insurance plans has led to millions more young people with mental-health and substance-abuse problems getting treatment, according to a new study. Click here to continue reading.

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California Asks: Should Doctors Face Drug Tests?

At a time when random drug testing is part of the job for pilots, train operators, police officers and firefighters — to name a few — one high-profile line of work has managed to remain exempt: doctors. Click here to continue reading.

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Dealing With Opioid Abuse Would Pay for Itself

Once championed as the answer to chronic pain, opioid medications and painkillers have become a large and costly problem in the United States. Fatal overdoses have quadrupled in the last 15 years, and opioids now cause more deaths than any other drug, over 16,000 in 2010. Prescription opioid abuse is also costly, sapping productivity and increasing health care and criminal justice costs to the tune of $55.7 billion in 2007, for example. Click here to continue reading.

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Your liver walks into a bar: The science of alcohol

How does alcohol affect your liver and heart?

Alcohol, the presumed panacea of low confidence, bad days in the office, and social cohesion, has built-up quite the reputation. The social drinkers, binge drinkers, occasional drinkers, and abstainers, after-all, all share an opinion on this 21 Century drug. Yet I am going to actively side-step these psycho-social issues and take you on a journey of a different kind. It begins with that infamous phrase, “Fancy a drink?” Click here to continue reading.

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“New Paradigm” Addiction Recovery Model Takes Long-Term View

People in recovery from substance use disorders who have had repeated relapses can benefit from being monitored for at least five years after treatment, according to a former head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Click here to continue reading.

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Drug overdose rate among women skyrockets

The rate of Ohio women dying from a drug overdose has skyrocketed by more than 440 percent in the past 14 years.

State and federal lawmakers, as well as regional hospitals and treatment facilities, continue to move more resources toward not only the treatment of drug addiction, but also developing an approach to treat the whole person and the root causes of their addictions. Click here to continue reading.

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Where Americans smoke marijuana the most

Forget Colorado or Washington — tiny Rhode Island is the marijuana capital of the United States, at least as measured by the percent of state residents who regularly use marijuana. Click here to continue reading.

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What's The Harm? On Having a Drink Then, And Now

Not much has changed in the world of booze and young people over the centuries. In the fall that I helped my daughter move into her room at college, I noticed a young man in the driveway of the house next door wrestling an empty beer keg onto the back seat of his car. As so often happens whenever I visit a college campus, I recalled my own youthful struggles with alcohol. Click here to continue reading.

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Marijuana Legalization: Pharmaceuticals, Alcohol Industry Among Biggest Opponents Of Legal Weed

Opponents of marijuana legalization argue that decriminalizing pot increases crime, creates juvenile delinquents and can even lead to more marijuana-related deaths. But there is another reason for the crusade against marijuana that involves some people losing lots of money as the country becomes increasingly pot friendly, according to a recent report from The Nation and a study by the Center for Responsive Politics. Click here to continue reading.

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Brief Counseling May Not Help With Most Drug Problems

Beating a drug habit is usually a long process that includes talk therapy and, sometimes, medicine. Checking into a rehab facility can help many people, too. But it can be hard to persuade someone to commit to that long-term treatment. So public health officials lately have been cutting to the chase — urging doctors in primary care and in hospital emergency rooms to question all patients regarding drug use, then offer those with a drug problem a 10- or 15-minute counseling session, right then and there. Click here to continue reading.

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Rules for the Marijuana Market

As voters and lawmakers in more states decide to legalize marijuana, policy makers will have to answer a fresh and difficult question: How should governments regulate the production and sale of the drug? Click here to continue reading.

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