The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in U.S. children and adolescents climbed to 2.41% from 2014 to 2016, Guifeng Xu, MD, and her associates, wrote in a research letter. However, the increased prevalence of ASD over the 3-year period was not statistically significant. Of the 30,502 children and adolescents [...]
Attention Bias, Threat/Anxiety Symptoms Linked A recent study indicates associations between threat bias and pediatric anxiety symptoms, and suggests that vigilance to external threats manifests more prominently in symptoms of social anxiety and school phobia, regardless of age and gender. These findings point to the role of attention bias to [...]
Cannabidiol linked to reduction in psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia Patients with schizophrenia showed signs of improvement in positive psychotic symptoms and clinician-rated improvement after treatment with cannabidiol, a component of cannabis thought to counteract the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an industry-funded phase 2 study reported. According to the authors, the [...]
CDC researchers find > 50% of people in 10 states who died of opioid overdoses during the second half of 2016 tested positive for fentanyl. Researchers examined 5,152 people who died due to opioid overdose in Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and [...]
A new study, published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience shows that older people who routinely partake in physical exercise can reverse the signs of aging in the brain, and dancing has the most profound effects as we suffer a decline in mental and physical fitness, which can be [...]
Written by Dr. Bruce Kehr Psychiatrists are using genetic testing to determine which prescription medications work best for treating each patient’s particular addiction. For example, doctors can test patients who suffer from alcohol addiction for variants in a gene called the μ-Opioid Receptor (OPRM1), which has been linked to a [...]
The FDA plans to convene an expert panel to examine the population-level effects of treating opioid addiction with medication in hopes of gaining wider acceptance of and insurance coverage for those medications. During a late October hearing, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce [...]
The Food and Drug Administration has approved an extended-release, subcutaneous injection formulation of buprenorphine for use in treating moderate to severe opioid use disorder (OUD), the manufacturer of the drug announced recently. The new product, called Sublocade, is a monthly injection intended for use in patients who have already begun [...]
By Michael J. Manos, Kimberly Giuliano, and Eric Geyer The Affordable Care Act of 2010 sought to transform medical care in the United States from procedures to performance, from acute episodes of illness to integrated care across the lifespan, and from inefficient care to efficient and affordable care with measurable outcomes. At [...]
An investigational Alzheimer’s drug intended to potentiate acetylcholine release didn’t pass muster in a global phase 3 study, despite a successful phase 2 trial. Intepirdine on a background of stable-dose donepezil failed to confer any cognitive or functional benefit in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Intepirdine blocks the 5-hydroxytryptamine [...]