But a new systematic research review from Mayo Clinic, one of the country’s leading medical centers, warns there’s still a lot to learn about CBD. The big takeaway from the review is that no one knows exactly how effective or safe CBD really is. The researchers argue that more research on humans is needed to confirm many of the health claims made on the packaging of products containing CBD, short for the Cannabis-derived compound cannabidiol… The Mayo Clinic encourages physicians to keep “a clinical curiosity and a healthy skepticism” about CBD.
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Contingency management, researchers like McDonell say, is that thing: It works, patients like it, and it’s cost-effective. Literature reviews and analyses often agree: A review of 69 reports released from 2009 to 2014 found “high levels of treatment efficacy” in contingency-management treatment. On average, it increased a patient’s odds of reaching abstinence by 117%. Here’s how the treatment works: You come in a few times a week, complete a urine test, and if it’s negative, you draw for a prize — at a trial McDonell is running in Wallingford, there are “small” prizes like shampoo or a toothbrush, “big” prizes like a coffeemaker, or rare “jumbo” prizes like a DVD player. The longer you’re sober, the more draws you get, but if the test comes back positive, the clinician says “see you next time.”
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Nearly 9,000 children and adolescents died as a result of prescription and illicit opioid poisonings between 1999 and 2016 in the United States, according to findings published in JAMA Network Open. Most of these deaths occurred in teenagers, who saw an increase in heroin-related mortality of more than 400% during that time.
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Teenagers who reported nonmedical prescription opioid use during high school were significantly more likely to later use heroin, according to findings from a prospective cohort study published in JAMA Pediatrics.
“The opioid epidemic has overwhelmed many communities in the United States, and teenagers are a particularly vulnerable group who also are at risk,” lead author Lorraine Kelley-Quon, MD, MSHS, assistant professor in the division of pediatric surgery at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, told Infectious Diseases in Children. “Prescription opioids are pharmacologically similar to heroin, making the association notable and unique.”
Kelley-Quon and colleagues conducted a longitudinal cohort survey in eight urban and two suburban Los Angeles high schools that were chosen because of their diverse demographic characteristics. The researchers followed 3,298 adolescents from ninth grade in 2013 through 12th grade in 2017. The adolescents, who had never used heroin at baseline, participated in eight waves of semi-annual surveys — each wave representing a semester in high school — to assess nonmedical prescription opioid use, heroin use and social and environmental factors.
Current nonmedical prescription opioid use has a 13.1% estimated cumulative probability of subsequent heroin use initiation.
The cohort included 1,775 teen girls (53.9%), 1,563 (48.3%) Hispanic students, 548 (17%) Asian students, 155 (4.8%) African American students, 529 (16.4) non-Hispanic white students and 220 (6.8%) multiracial students.
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Medical authorities say it is unclear whether patients will fully recover – US health officials are investigating around 100 cases of mysterious lung illnesses believed to be linked to vaping and e-cigarette use in 14 states. Many of those who have fallen ill are teenagers and young adults. A large number have been hospitalised, with some in intensive care and on ventilators.
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