Prescriptions for ADHD treatments surged among adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to fuel lingering shortages that frustrate parents and doctors. New prescriptions for stimulants used to treat the condition jumped for young adults and women during a two-year window after the pandemic hit in March 2020, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA … Read more
People taking the popular diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy had a lower risk of suicidal thoughts than those taking other medications to treat the same conditions, a new federal study finds. The research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was published Friday and comes as European and U.S. regulators look into anecdotal … Read more
Eli Lilly has launched a unique website to connect U.S. patients seeking obesity treatment to doctors, dieticians and its new weight-loss drug, Zepbound. The drugmaker said Thursday it will use the site, called LillyDirect, to pair visitors with third-party mail-order pharmacies for prescriptions and to care providers through a virtual medical weight-loss clinic. The site … Read more
WASHINGTON — Scientists have found a way to help Alzheimer’s drugs seep inside the brain faster — by temporarily breaching its protective shield. The novel experiment was a first attempt in just three patients. But in spots in the brain where the new technology took aim, it enhanced removal of Alzheimer’s trademark brain-clogging plaque, researchers … Read more
PORTLAND, Ore. — Authorities are investigating the theft of medication prescribed to patients at a southern Oregon hospital, police and state medical officials confirmed Wednesday, following a local news report that two people died and others were sickened after a nurse replaced fentanyl intravenous drips with tap water. Officials at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center … Read more
Thousands of women stocked up on abortion pills just in case they needed them, new research shows, with demand peaking in the past couple years at times when it looked like the medications might become harder to get. Medication abortion accounts for more than half of all abortions in the U.S., and typically involves two … Read more
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia is issuing the first checks from a fund established by the settlement of opioid lawsuits in the state, which has by far the nation’s highest drug overdose death rate. The Kanawha County Commission said Thursday it received a $2.9 million check and plans to discuss how it will be spent … Read more
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president is inaugurating a ‘super pharmacy’ in a bid to end the woes of patients throughout the country who are often told they need a specific medicine — but the hospital in question doesn’t have it. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s solution was to outfit a big warehouse on the outskirts … Read more
WASHINGTON — New obesity drugs are showing promising results in helping some people shed pounds but the injections will remain out of reach for millions of older Americans because Medicare is forbidden to cover such medications. Drugmakers and a wide-ranging and growing bipartisan coalition of lawmakers are gearing up to push for that to change … Read more
KINSHASA, Congo — As Congo copes with its biggest outbreak of mpox, scientists warn discrimination against gay and bisexual men on the continent could make it worse. In November, the World Health Organization reported that mpox, also known as monkeypox, was being spread via sex in Congo for the first time. That is a significant … Read more
