MedPage Today (10/7, Henderson ) reports, “Cannabis use during adolescence and young adulthood was linked to lower academic performance, a systematic review and meta-analysis suggested.” Researchers found that “among 63 studies that comprised 438,329 participants, moderate-certainty evidence indicated that cannabis use among individuals ages 24 years and younger was likely associated with lower school grades…as well as less likelihood of high school completion…university enrollment…and postsecondary degree.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The Washington Post (10/7, Ovalle ) reports, “Overdose deaths appear to be declining sharply in the United States, a sign that efforts to combat the scourge of lethal fentanyl may be paying off even as experts caution that the toll remains unacceptably high and could rise again.” Preliminary data that were “compiled by states and released by the” CDC “show a 10 percent drop in deaths during the 12-month period ending in April, with about 101,000 people succumbing to overdoses.”

Researchers and public health officials “said the decline could reflect multiple forces, including widespread availability of the overdose-reversal medication naloxone, greater access to opioid addiction treatment, and law enforcement crackdowns on illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which had become the leading killer of 18-to-49-year-olds.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Healio (10/4, Rhoades) reported, “Fatal and nonfatal drug overdoses experienced ‘unprecedented’ decreases of 10% to 20% from last year, which could be due to factors like increased naloxone availability, according to researchers.” The study findings “showed a precipitous decline in state-level overdose-related mortality figures, especially among states in the Eastern region.” The findings were published in a blog post in Opioid Data Lab.

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— “Fatal drug overdose deaths down as much as 10%, although reasons why remain unclear,” Andrew Rhoades, Healio, October 4, 2024

Psychiatric News (10/4) said, “Minority youth at high risk of psychosis who live in more diverse neighborhoods tend to have less severe positive symptoms – such as unusual thoughts or grandiose ideas – than those surrounded by less diversity, reports a study.” The investigators “found that part of this association was because youth in diverse neighborhoods experience less perceived discrimination and less peer victimization such as bullying.” The findings were published in Psychiatry Research.

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— “Study Finds Neighborhood Diversity May Lessen Symptoms in Youth At Risk of Psychosis,” Psychiatric News, October 4, 2024

The New York Times (10/4, A1, Twohey , Ivory, Kessler ) reported that “from Washington State to West Virginia, psychiatrists treat rising numbers of people whose” cannabis use “has brought on delusions, paranoia and other symptoms of psychosis.” Meanwhile, “in the emergency departments of small community hospitals and large academic medical centers alike, physicians encounter patients with severe vomiting induced by the drug – a potentially devastating condition that once was rare but now, they say, is common.” According to the Times, “as marijuana legalization has accelerated across the country,” physicians “are contending with the effects of an explosion in the use of the drug and its intensity.” With more Americans “consuming more potent cannabis more often, a growing number, mostly chronic users, are enduring serious health consequences.”

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)