Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
High Suicide Rates, Opioid Epidemic At Top Of New CDC Director's Priorities
The nation鈥檚 rapidly rising suicide rate is a tragedy, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is doing more to address two of the most common ways people take their lives: substance abuse and firearms, the agency鈥檚 new director said in his first interview in the role. 鈥淚t should bring people to have pause,鈥 Robert Redfield said of the suicide rate, in an interview that also touched on his goals for ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S., improving immunization rates and strengthening public-health systems in countries where epidemics are a risk. (McKay, 6/25)
Here鈥檚 a psychological challenge for anyone over 30 who thinks 鈥渒ids these days鈥 can鈥檛 delay their personal gratification: Before you judge, wait a minute. It turns out that a generation of Americans now working their way through middle school, high school and college are quite able to resist the prospect of an immediate reward in order to get a bigger one later. Not only that, they can wait a minute longer than their parents鈥 generation, and two minutes longer than their grandparents鈥 generation could. (Healy, 6/26)
Several dozen African clinics and hospitals are the latest front in the battle to decipher the genetic roots of the little-understood diseases schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Scientists currently search for hints in genetic databases largely extracted from European and North American populations. That means they may be missing genetic variants in other populations that could help explain how the diseases develop鈥攁nd how to treat them. (Whalen, 6/25)
Kaiser Health News: Dementia And Gun Safety: When Should Aging Americans Retire Their Weapons?
With a bullet in her gut, her voice choked with pain, Dee Hill pleaded with the 911 dispatcher for help. 鈥淢y husband accidentally shot me,鈥 Hill, 75, of The Dalles, Ore., groaned on the May 16, 2015, call. 鈥淚n the stomach, and he can鈥檛 talk, please 鈥︹ Less than four feet away, Hill鈥檚 husband, Darrell Hill, a former local police chief and two-term county sheriff, sat in his wheelchair with a discharged Glock handgun on the table in front of him, unaware that he鈥檇 nearly killed his wife of almost 57 years. (Aleccia and Bailey, 6/26)
A lawyer representing the eldest son and two grandsons of Henrietta Lacks, whose 鈥渋mmortal cells鈥 have been the subject of a best-selling book, a TV movie, a family feud, cutting-edge medical research and a multibillion-dollar biotech industry, announced last week that she plans to file a petition seeking 鈥済uardianship鈥 of the cells.聽鈥淭he question we are dealing with is 鈥楥an the cells sue for mistreatment, misappropriation, theft and for the profits earned without their consent?鈥欌夆 said Christina J. Bostick, who is representing Lawrence Lacks, the eldest son of Lacks, and grandsons Lawrence Lacks Jr. and Ron Lacks. (Brown, 6/25)
What do you want in bed? Sexual fantasies are among the most taboo of topics鈥攁wkward to talk about, even (or perhaps especially) with a partner we know well. They can sometimes feel embarrassing or shameful, even if we tell no one. We wonder: Where did this come from? Is it normal? (Bernstein, 6/25)
You might know Headspace as a meditation app. What if it were also a prescription medication? The California-based company recently launched Headspace Health, a subsidiary whose executives鈥 goal is to apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a prescription meditation app by 2020. The company will soon launch a series of clinical trials to support an application. (Reddy, 6/25)
Provided along with curative treatments, palliative care emphasizes pain and symptom management, care management and coordination, assistance with treatment decisions, and 24-hour-a-day access to the palliative team's nurses and doctors. (Anderson, 6/25)
These wound treatments are often costly, especially when there鈥檚 an effort to prevent infection or scarring. However, new wound dressings are being developed in Georgia that could mimic the body鈥檚 natural healing process and may not only prevent infection but also reduce the cost of treatment. (Boss, 6/22)