The AP (3/31, Stobbe) reports that on Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a surveillance summary showing “no change in how common autism is among US children.” Currently, approximately one “in 68 school-aged children” appears to “have autism or related disorders,” the same figure “as it was when health officials checked two years earlier,” the report published April 1 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reveals. It is “too soon,” however, to determine if “the number is stabilizing, said Daisy Christensen,” PhD, the report’s lead author.
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In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (3/30, A13, Wen, Subscription Publication), emergency physician Leana S. Wen, MD, MSc, FAEEM, health commissioner for the city of Baltimore, MD, writes about the dangers of prescribing opioid medications simultaneously with benzodiazepines. Dr. Wen, along with more than 40 other city and state public health directors, has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration for a required boxed warning detailing the dangers of taking benzodiazepines and opioids at the same time.
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In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (3/30, A13, Wen, Subscription Publication), emergency physician Leana S. Wen, MD, MSc, FAEEM, health commissioner for the city of Baltimore, MD, writes about the dangers of prescribing opioid medications simultaneously with benzodiazepines. Dr. Wen, along with more than 40 other city and state public health directors, has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration for a required boxed warning detailing the dangers of taking benzodiazepines and opioids at the same time.

Related Links:

— “The Accidental Deadly Drug Prescription,” Leana S. Wen, Wall Street Journal, March 30, 2016.

TIME (3/30, Szalavitz) reports that “specific genes associated with marijuana addiction have been identified – and some of them are also linked to increased risk for depression and schizophrenia.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after studying “the genes of nearly 15,000 people from three different groups.” The study’s findings may “help explain why 90% of people with marijuana addictions also suffer from another psychiatric condition or addiction.”

Related Links:

— “The Genes for Pot Addiction Have Been Identified,” Maia Szalavitz, Time, March 30, 2016.

TIME (3/30, Szalavitz) reports that “specific genes associated with marijuana addiction have been identified – and some of them are also linked to increased risk for depression and schizophrenia.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after studying “the genes of nearly 15,000 people from three different groups.” The study’s findings may “help explain why 90% of people with marijuana addictions also suffer from another psychiatric condition or addiction.”
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