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☆ U.S. Suicides Reached a Record High Last Year
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A suicide-prevention barrier along the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in St. Petersburg, Fla. Nearly 50,000 people in the U.S. lost their lives to suicide in 2022, according to a provisional tally. Photo: Douglas R. Clifford/Associated PressAmerica’s mental-health crisis drove suicides to a record-high number last year. Nearly 50,000 people in the U.S. lost their lives to suicide in 2022, according to a provisional tally from the National Center for Health Statistics. The agency said the final count would likely be higher. The suicide rate of 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people reached its highest level since 1941.

Persons: Douglas R, Clifford Organizations: Sunshine Skyway, Associated Press, National Center for Health Statistics Locations: St . Petersburg, Fla, U.S

☆ He Sold Burritos Out of His Apartment Window. Now He’s Running a $7 Billion Startup.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Pivot Point is a new Wall Street Journal feature in which executives reflect on the successes and setbacks of their careers. The first Pivot Point installment is here. Zach Reitano was the only one in his cohort of a dozen summer interns at Booz & Co. a decade ago who didn’t get a full-time job. The failure set him up to lead a $7 billion healthcare company.

Persons: Zach Reitano Organizations: Booz & Co

☆ Libraries Are the New Front Line in America’s Mental-Health Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Julie Wernau | Photography Rich-Joseph Facun For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

HUNTINGTON, W.Va.—When Michael Bare started working as a library assistant, he thought he would be helping with term papers or leading a book club. Instead, he spends most of his time assisting patrons in crisis with nowhere else to go. “They just want someone to talk to,” said Bare, 37, who has worked for four years at the library in this city of 46,000 on the Ohio River where West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky meet.

Persons: HUNTINGTON, —, Michael Bare, “, ” Locations: W.Va, Ohio, West Virginia , Ohio, Kentucky

☆ Female Surgeons Get Better Results Than Male Counterparts
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/female-surgeons-get-better-results-than-male-counterparts-7ba9b9c2

Persons: Dow Jones

Dispatchers at the 911 center in Mesa, Ariz., have three levers to pull: fire/medical, police or mental health. The last one is a relatively new addition, adopted by dozens of police departments around the country and aimed at avoiding violent and often deadly confrontations between police officers and the mentally ill.

Locations: Mesa, Ariz

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/anxiety-mental-health-treatment-supplements-ca4a7fc

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ Recovering From Drug Addiction Was Hard. Tranq Made it Worse.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( Julie Wernau | Photographs Alyssa Schukar For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/tranq-xylazine-drug-addiction-recovery-acebae3c

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ Recovering From Drug Addiction Was Hard. Tranq Made It Worse.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( Julie Wernau | Photographs Alyssa Schukar For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/tranq-xylazine-drug-addiction-recovery-acebae3c

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ Pharmaceutical Giants Set $19 Billion Opioid Settlement as States Debate How to Spend It
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Erin Mulvaney | Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/pharmaceutical-giants-set-19-billion-opioid-settlement-as-states-debate-how-to-spend-it-aa8a918e

Persons: Dow Jones

☆ For Babies Born Dependent on Opioids, Doctors Try New Caregiving Approach
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A caregiver feeding a tiny patient at Hushabye Nursery, which cares for babies in opioid withdrawal. Photo: Matt Martian for The Wall Street JournalThousands of babies are born each year to mothers who are using opioids. The newborns enter the world in withdrawal—some fussy and sweating, others struggling to feed. The treatment, until recently, was to separate the babies from their mothers, start them on morphine, and keep them isolated for days or weeks of intensive care.

☆ For Babies Born Addicted to Opioids, Doctors Try New Caregiving Approach
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Empty Ice-Cube Trays and Shrieks: Cold Therapy Comes to the Family Bathtub
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Justin Mullner, a 40-year-old doctor, emptied his family’s two ice makers into the bathtub at his home in Orlando, Fla., added cold water, checked the temperature with a thermometer, stripped down to his swim trunks and hopped in. His wife, Blair Heinke, heard him screaming less than a minute later. “I thought he was a wimp,” said Dr. Heinke, a former marathoner. “The ice cubes all melted. That’s not cold.”

☆ Suicide Rates Rose in 2021 After Two Years in Decline
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/suicide-rates-rose-in-2021-after-two-years-in-decline-c8e48b24

☆ A Little Alcohol Won’t Kill You or Make You Stronger
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A new study published on Friday joins a body of evidence that shows alcohol does more harm than good. First, the good news: A nip of alcohol here and there probably won’t kill you. For a study published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open, researchers set out to make sense of years of conflicting evidence on alcohol’s effect on health. Some research suggested that drinking alcohol improves life expectancy. Other studies had demonstrated poorer health outcomes at any level of drinking.

☆ FDA Approves Narcan for Non-Prescription Sale
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Narcan is an over-the-counter version of a widely used opioid-reversal nasal spray. People will soon be able to walk into a pharmacy and purchase medication to reverse an opioid overdose alongside other non-prescription items like aspirin and vitamins. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday said the overdose reversal medication Narcan could be sold over-the-counter for the first time since the opioid crisis began. Narcan’s manufacturer, Emergent Biosolutions Inc., said the nasal-spray version of the medication naloxone would likely begin appearing on shelves by late summer. Emergent is the first company to gain approval to sell naloxone without a prescription.

☆ FDA Makes Overdose-Reversal Drug Narcan Available Over-the-Counter
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The nasal-spray version of naloxone will likely be available on pharmacy shelves by late summer. People will soon be able to walk into a pharmacy and purchase medication to reverse an opioid overdose alongside other nonprescription items like aspirin and vitamins. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday said the overdose reversal medication Narcan could be sold over-the-counter for the first time since the opioid crisis began. Narcan’s manufacturer, Emergent BioSolutions Inc., said the nasal-spray version of the medication naloxone would likely begin appearing on shelves by late summer. Emergent is the first company to gain approval to sell naloxone without a prescription.

☆ Congress Moves to Add Fentanyl Additive ‘Tranq’ to Controlled Drugs List
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Jon Kamp | Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: Alyssa Schukar for The Wall Street JournalA street drug sample that a chemist later put through a mass spectrometer to identify its chemical makeup. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators and representatives plans to introduce legislation to designate a veterinary tranquilizer worsening the fentanyl crisis as a controlled substance, aiming to help law-enforcement authorities crack down on illegal use. Xylazine, known to some users as “tranq,” is approved only for use in animals such as horses and cattle. But dealers have been adding it to the fentanyl supply at an alarming pace, potentially to reduce their costs and lengthen the high for users.

It was late 2020 when Jason Bienert noticed unusual wounds among a half-dozen of the fentanyl users he works with as a nurse in northeast Maryland. Unlike the red, swollen abscesses he was used to seeing on people who inject illicit opioids, these were painful ulcers that started small and dark before consuming the surrounding skin and tissue. Some wounds led to amputation. Others were life threatening.

☆ Coffee and Your Heart: The Impact May Be Different Than You Think
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

America’s favorite stimulant might not be so risky for cardiac health after all, but there may still be other health effects, researchers say. Coffee consumption doesn’t increase abnormal heart beats associated with an increased risk of the most common heart rhythm disturbance, according to a new study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers monitored the hearts, activity and sleep of 100 people without underlying heart conditions over two weeks. They found that the key cardiac risk marker remained about the same for coffee drinkers as it did for non-coffee drinkers. The irregular heart rhythm known as atrial fibrillation, can lead to dangerous blood clots that can cause stroke and heart failure.

☆ Doctor-Rating Websites Lack Convictions and Medical Malpractice Claims Against Some Physicians
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

If you’re using online ratings to pick a doctor, you may not get the whole picture. An Indiana doctor has top marks on several physician-review sites, with one patient writing that the doctor was the best she had seen in years. The site, however, is missing some key information—including his conviction for insurance fraud, medical-malpractice claims and a licensing-board sanction. Doctor-rating websites regularly fail to mention such black marks on physicians’ records, according to research published in November in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.

Journal Reports: Health CareIn March 2020, the virus held many mysteries. Some early assumptions didn’t hold up, while other key findings wouldn’t come until much later. If we could do it all over again…

Some community leaders in New York resisted OnPoint’s safe-use sites. Syderia Asberry, a founder of the nonprofit Greater Harlem Coalition, spent three years fighting against what she called the over saturation of treatment centers and shelters in Harlem. She said safe-use sites represent an acceptance of drug use as a way of life.

☆ What Is Fentanyl and Why Is It So Dangerous?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The opioid crisis has only intensified as more illicit drugs have entered the market. Drug overdose deaths reached a record high in 2021, with more than 100,000 people lost to the continuing epidemic, fueled by the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl. The drug, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, can be up to 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times that of morphine. Illicit forms of fentanyl are mainly manufactured by drug cartels in Mexico and spreading in the U.S.Here’s what to know about fentanyl:

A veterinary tranquilizer that can cause serious wounds for regular users is spreading menace within the illicit drug supply. Xylazine, authorized only for animals, is one ingredient in an increasingly toxic brew of illicit drugs that killed a record of nearly 107,000 people in the U.S. in 2021. It is typically mixed with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that itself has broadly infiltrated U.S. drug supply, including in supplies of cocaine and methamphetamine. Taken together, the volatile mixing means drug users often don’t know what’s in the substances they take.

☆ Dealer Convicted in Fentanyl Overdose Deaths of Three New Yorkers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Margot Patrick | Julie Wernau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Deaths involving cocaine in New York City surged to 1,261 in 2021 from a few hundred annually a few years ago as fentanyl spread into supplies. A New Jersey man was convicted of causing the deaths of three New Yorkers to whom he sold cocaine laced with fentanyl, a spate of poisonings that The Wall Street Journal reported on last year. Billy Ortega was found guilty on Monday of all charges by a federal jury in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York of supplying the cocaine with fentanyl that killed three professionals in Manhattan in March 2021. At a sentencing scheduled for June 2, he could face 25 years to life in prison on five convictions related to selling and distributing drugs that led to the deaths and using firearms to protect the operation. A lawyer representing Mr. Ortega said he plans to appeal the verdict.

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