Covid has been rough on America’s mental health, with job losses, uncertainty and being cooped up at home. Covid lockdowns, social isolation and online Zoom classes while stuck at home have undoubtedly made teenage angst worse as well. An article in The New York Times discusses how teens are being overmedicated with powerful psychiatric drugs with little concern for the long term side effects. Indeed, the trend for prescribing psychiatric drugs to adolescents began to rise long before Covid.
Category: News and Events
Monday Links
- Should vending machines be available to dispense medication for opioid overdoses?
- Why are people having less sex?
- Study: Native Americans, once among the tallest people in the world, lost their height advantage after the demise of the bison.
- How university research → startup companies → commercial innovation led to the Moderna Covid vaccine.
- How colleges and students scam the student loan program and why Biden’s new executive order will make things much worse.
- Euthanasia is the sixth leading cause of death in Canada.
Magic Mushrooms Control Alcohol Abuse… What???
Alcohol abuse kills around 95,000 people in the United States every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Moreover, alcohol abuse shortens lives by an average 26 years. A new clinical trial tested psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms, as a treatment for alcohol misuse disorder.
Friday Links
- 100% of large health insurers cover telemedicine for mental health and other behavioral health problems. (gated)
- However, more therapists are refusing to accept private insurance. (WSJ)
- Israeli study: Paxlovid (for Covid) lowered hospitalization rates in 65-year-olds and older by about 75%, but people ages 40-64 who took the drug shortly after infection saw little to no benefit.
- Kaiser: Most Medicare beneficiaries will soon get their coverage through Medicare Advantage.
- A liberal critiques Biden: He needs advisers who think like economists. A good read if you are an Yglesias subscriber.