Heroin addiction grabbed the national spotlight recently after famed actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died on Super Bowl Sunday. He was almost certainly not alone that day — about 100 Americans die every day from drug overdoses. Can anything be done to stop this?
A grieving father set out to create a system that might prevent other lives from being lost at the hands of a drug-dazed driver. Ten years later, he's still waiting for the system he created to be fully realized.
A compelling patient or researcher makes a story engaging; concrete statistics make a story valid. Data, however, aren’t always clear-cut, and experts disagree on interpreting and applying it. Statistics on gun violence and how to reduce it fall prey to the same dichotomy.
An ambitious plan to reverse New York’s growing prescription drug epidemic is causing a rift between legislators and health care providers, pitting a proposed computer system that would require doctors and pharmacists to meticulously scan patients’ medical history for patterns of abuse against arguments by two professional associations that increased monitoring would backfire.
Prescription drug abuse, contraception, psychiatry and obesity -- today in the Daily Briefing we look at some of the biggest health stories from fresh angles.
Every once in a while, a story not only finds a reporter, it hounds her. That was the case with my new book about two friends who blew the whistle on one of the deadliest prescription drugs in U.S. history.
The skyrocketing cost of new cancer treatments is putting advances in fighting the deadly disease out of reach for a growing number of Americans.
How one doctor could allow another doctor to use his license to order painkillers for a clinic being used as a front for a drug mill and still be allowed to operate with no restrictions on his license is a true mystery. Finally, William Heisel reports, Dr. Scott Bickman faces some sanctions.
When I set out to produce my fellowship series on prescription drug abuse in West Virginia, I already knew some grim statistics. Residents here are more likely than those of any other state to die of a prescription overdose. Because of high rates of chronic disease and occupational injuries, people in West Virginia also fill more prescriptions per capita than anywhere else.
A new study suggests that the risks of Lap-Band surgery could outweigh the weight-loss benefits, plus more from our Daily Briefing.
