Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Secular Version Of AA Needed For Non-Religious Alcoholics; Steps To Help Struggling Teens
In the past year, more than 140,000 people in the United States have died from excessive alcohol use. What's a struggling person to do? It's tempting to recommend people attend Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings. (Peg O'Connor, 7/9)
Every day brings more evidence that our nation’s youth are facing a mental health crisis: rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts among young people are on the rise, and so are adolescent deaths from drug poisoning. (Dr. Rahul Gupta and Dr. Vivek Murthy, 7/10)
All around the conference room in Atlanta last fall, jaws were dropping. Michael Roy, a physician from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, had just revealed to the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies the preliminary results of a study comparing two treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder: Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy, long regarded as the “gold standard,” and a novel approach called Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories or RTM. (Garry Trudeau, 7/10)
Meningococcal disease, a serious bacterial infection that can lead to meningitis, is rare but fearsome. The illness can make someone severely ill with terrifying speed, which is especially alarming given that children and teens are at increased risk. (7/9)
While the ongoing national nursing shortage remains a major challenge for hospitals and healthcare systems, a related issue also requires leaders’ attention: the care complexity gap. (Sammie Mosier, 7/7)
In the end, a lowly tape recorder helped to change the face of breast cancer treatment.Susan Love, who died Sunday at age 75, was in the early 1990s the director of the UCLA Breast Center, which was designed to turn the world of breast cancer treatment on its head. (Karen Stabiner, 7/7)
Last month, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case on affirmative action in college admissions, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a stinging dissent that included a litany of harms and injustices that Black citizens have had to endure from the age of slavery until the present. (Cory Franklin, 7/10)
Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a public health advisory that five cases of locally acquired malaria had been identified in Texas and Florida. The Florida Department of Health has since reported two more cases of locally acquired malaria. Although there are an estimated 2,000 cases of malaria in the US each year, mostly contracted during travel, the news from the CDC marks the first time in over 20 years that the deadly parasite has been found to be acquired locally. (Wierson, 7/7)