Stateline (5/1, Vestal) reports that it is “increasingly likely that someone you know has the opioid overdose rescue drug naloxone in their pocket or medicine cabinet,” and “in the last five years, at least 46 states and the District of Columbia enacted so-called good Samaritan laws, allowing private citizens to administer the overdose-reversal medication without legal liability.” But, Stateline notes, “a handful of states are going even further by requiring doctors to give or at least offer a prescription for the overdose rescue drug to patients taking high doses of opioid painkillers.”

Related Links:

— “New Naloxone Laws Seek to Prevent Opioid Overdoses, “Christine Vestal, Stateline, May 01, 2019

Recent reports show a small but growing number of people are taking very high doses of loperamide, an anti-diarrheal medication, in an attempt to self-manage opioid withdrawal or to achieve a euphoric high. At high doses, these individuals may be at risk of severe or fatal cardiac events. Learn more about identifying patients at risk of misusing loperamide at LoperamideSafety.org

Related Links:

— Understanding Loperamide Abuse

Bloomberg (4/30, Cortez) reports the Food and Drug Administration will now require a boxed warning on certain prescription sleeping medications, including Ambien (zolpidem), Lunesta (eszopiclone), and Sonata (zaleplon), advising patients about the risk of serious side effects that can lead to death. The article explains that the agency “said it had found 66 examples of patients who took the drugs and engaged in dangerous activities such as sleepwalking or driving while not fully awake, including 20 deaths linked to carbon monoxide poisoning, drowning, fatal falls, hypothermia, car crashes and apparent suicide.”

CNN (4/30, Scutti) reports the boxed warning will notify “patients to possible serious or life-threatening behaviors that may result from taking these drugs.”

Related Links:

— “Sleeping-Pill Deaths Prompt FDA to Add Strict Warning for Drugs, “Michelle Cortez, Bloomberg, April 30, 2019

Psychiatric News (4/30) reports, “Suicide deaths increased in the 30-day period following the suicide of Robin Williams on August 11, 2014,” researchers concluded. For the study, investigators analyzed “data from the National Center for Health Statistics” and “compared U.S. daily suicides in the 30 days before and after August 11, 2014, as well as for the same periods in 2012 and 2013.” The study revealed that “suicide deaths were between 113 and 117 a day for the 30 days before Williams’ death but increased to 142 a day in the 30-day period beginning August 12.” The findings were published online April 30 in Psychiatric Services.

Related Links:

— “Suicide Deaths, Calls to Hotlines Increased Dramatically Following Robin Williams’ 2014 Suicide, Psychiatric News , April 30, 2019

The AP (4/30, Neergaard) reports that “some people told they have Alzheimer’s may instead have a newly identified mimic of the disease.” It is unclear “how many people have this particular type” of dementia, “which an international team of scientists defined Tuesday in the journal Brain.”

CNN (4/30, Nedelman) reports, “The disease, called LATE, may often mirror the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, though it affects the brain differently and develops more slowly than Alzheimer’s.” According to CNN, “The acronym LATE stands for limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy.” This “full name refers to the area in the brain most likely to be affected, as well as the protein at the center of it all.”

HealthDay (4/30, Norton) reports that “LATE mainly affects people older than 80, the experts explained.” HealthDay adds that “it may account for about 17% of all cases of dementia.”

Also covering the story are The Guardian (UK) (4/30, Devlin), BBC News Online (UK) (4/30, Roberts), the Telegraph (UK) (4/30, Knapton), MedPage Today (4/30, George), and Science News (4/30, Sanders).

Related Links:

— “It seems like Alzheimer’s but peek into brain shows a mimic, “LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP, April 30, 2019