Georgia to get $835K for treatment

Five medical centers in eastern Georgia will each receive a $167,000 grant to help prevent and treat substance abuse. They are:

• Coastal Community Health Services in Brunswick
• Curtis V. Cooper Primary Health Care in Savannah
• Diversity Health Center in Ludowici
• J.C. Lewis Health Center in Savannah
• McKinney Medical Center in Waycross

Diabetes: No steps forward

For all the work you would think has been done on diabetes, the latest figures show virtually no improvement at all in care from 2005 through 2016.

“It appears that advances in diabetes care over the past decade have not translated into meaningful improvement in population-level treatment outcomes.”

Vaping and seizing

The FDA continues to investigate reports of e-cigarette users having seizures and other neurological incidents, and is still taking reports from healthcare providers. As of August 7 it’s received a total of 127 reports of seizure or other neurologic symptoms among e-cigarette users, including 92 new reports since April when it first announced the potential issue.

Cannabis, opioids, depression

A study out of the University of Houston finds that, “adults who take prescription opioids for severe pain are more likely to have increased anxiety, depression and substance abuse issues if they also use marijuana.”

Yet more autism genes

Inherited autism — it’s a lot more complicated than originally thought. UCLA researchers found an additional 16 genes (bringing the total to 69) that appear to increase the risk of autism. And it gets even more complex:

Researchers also identified several hundred genes they suspect may increase the risk of autism based on their proximity to genes that were previously identified to carry an increased risk. The study further revealed several new biological pathways that had not previously been identified in studies of autism.

Brexit: Med shortfalls in Europe?

As Brexit, the world’s slowest-moving train wreck, approaches the concrete wall of October 31, not only Brits are looking at potential medication shortages — the rest of Europe might be hit as well. The issue isn’t just delays at newly erected border crossings, but because of licensing changes as well.