• COVID helped make 2021 the deadliest year in U.S. history

    COVID helped make 2021 the deadliest year in U.S. history

    Apr 12, 2022 05:19 PM EST

    Drug overdose deaths also continued to rise. The CDC does not yet have a tally for 2021 overdose deaths, because it can take weeks of lab work and investigation to identify them. But provisional data through October suggests the nation is on track to see at least 105,000 overdose ...

  • Annual report shows systemic racism continues to bring down Black people's quality of life

    Annual report shows systemic racism continues to bring down Black people's quality of life

    Apr 12, 2022 02:44 PM EST

    ... bearing a child, and 31 percent more likely to die of breast cancer. Black men are 52 percent more likely to die of prostate cancer. Overdoses afflict the races about equally, while white people are 55 percent more likely to drink themselves to death through cirrhosis or chronic liver disease ...

  • How this Medicaid extension throws postpartum parents a lifeline

    How this Medicaid extension throws postpartum parents a lifeline

    Apr 08, 2022 09:07 PM EST

    More than half of pregnancy-linked deaths happen during the first year after delivery, according to research from the Commonwealth Fund. And mental health conditions, including postpartum depression, death by suicide and fatal drug overdose, are among the leading underlying causes of maternal mortality starting roughly six weeks after childbirth ...

  • Trial begins in West Virginia lawsuit against opioid manufacturers

    Trial begins in West Virginia lawsuit against opioid manufacturers

    Apr 04, 2022 09:56 PM EST

    ... opioids becoming a common treatment for chronic pain and fueled substance abuse in West Virginia. The state has the nation’s highest rate of drug overdose deaths. Morrisey said the companies' actions created a public nuisance and violating the state's Consumer Credit and Protection Act. One by one, company ...

  • Biden budget calls for future investments in health care as COVID aid runs out

    Biden budget calls for future investments in health care as COVID aid runs out

    Mar 29, 2022 07:02 PM EST

    ... Biden signaled in his State of the Union address earlier this month. The proposed spending increases on those needs and others, such as maternal health, overdose prevention and HIV-AIDS treatment and support, were intended to "leave no American behind," Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said. The budget also includes funding ...

  • What's driving the dramatic rise in alcohol-related deaths during the pandemic?

    What's driving the dramatic rise in alcohol-related deaths during the pandemic?

    Mar 23, 2022 10:25 PM EST

    ... overdose can't be understated. Certainly, what we're seeing in terms of this acceleration of alcohol-related deaths intersects very directly with the opioid overdose epidemic.William Brangham: You touched on this before, but certainly anyone that has ever tried to get anyone into psychiatric care or substance abuse ...

  • WATCH: Sen. Cotton asks Jackson questions about policing during the confirmation hearing

    WATCH: Sen. Cotton asks Jackson questions about policing during the confirmation hearing

    Mar 23, 2022 01:28 AM EST

    ... At one point, Cotton said to the nominee, "I think that not many Americans, especially not the 100,000 Americans who lost someone to drug overdose think these are tough questions." Jackson shot back: "It's not that they're difficult questions. It's that they're not questions for ...

  • Americans describe the momentous mental health toll of the pandemic

    Americans describe the momentous mental health toll of the pandemic

    Mar 15, 2022 10:25 PM EST

    ... my book. The book, I was trying to figure out, why, with so much progress in science, have we seen increases in suicide, increases in overdose deaths, increases in morbidity and mortality for people with mental illness? And the answer is not in the science. It's not even in ...

  • After years of pain, opioid crisis victims confront Sackler family in court

    After years of pain, opioid crisis victims confront Sackler family in court

    Mar 10, 2022 05:40 PM EST

    ... they be used for some pain conditions for which the potent drugs were previously considered off limits. Over the decades, there were waves of fatal overdoses, first associated with prescription drugs and then, as prescriptions became harder to obtain and some drugs became harder to manipulate for a quick high ...

  • A look inside the 1st official safe injection sites in U.S.

    A look inside the 1st official safe injection sites in U.S.

    Mar 10, 2022 12:46 AM EST

    ... whatever type — to the consumption rooms, but they're stocked with syringes, alcohol wipes, straws for snorting, other paraphernalia and, crucially, oxygen and the opioid-overdose-reversing drug naloxone. Staffers, some of whom have used illegal drugs themselves, watch for signals of overconsumption or other needs, from advice on injection ...