Health Wire

Nove is a discrete device designed to administer naloxone to reverse an opioid overdose. Brendan Mudd, a graduate of Western Washington University’s industrial design program, designed Nove.

Western Washington University alum creates nasal spray device for opioid overdoses

November 6, 2023, 7:08pm Health

the nasal spray that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose — comes in a flimsy box. The device that administers the medication is shaped like a cartoon spaceship and has to remain sealed in blister pack until use. It’s clunky to carry and can be sprayed accidentally. Read story

Studies: Marijuana use raises risk of heart attack, heart failure and stroke

November 6, 2023, 5:48pm Health

A pair of studies have found that older adults who use marijuana have more risk of heart attack or stroke when hospitalized than non-users and are more likely to develop heart failure if they are a daily user. Read story

Medicare expands the roster of available mental health professionals

November 6, 2023, 8:18am Health

Lynn Cooper was going through an awful time. After losing her job in 2019, she became deeply depressed. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and her anxiety went through the roof. Then her cherished therapist — a marriage and family counselor — told Cooper she couldn’t see her once Cooper turned… Read story

A lockbox is held to show where ketamine is placed into while administered at the Duke Speciality Infusion Center, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, in Durham, N.C. Ketamine prescriptions have soared in recent years as an alternative to opioids for pain. But with little research on its effectiveness, some experts worry about the risks of overprescribing another powerful drug that carries risks of safety and abuse.

Mind-altering ketamine becomes new pain treatment, despite little research or regulation

November 6, 2023, 7:35am Health

As U.S. doctors scale back their use of opioid painkillers, a new option for hard-to-treat pain is taking root: ketamine, the decades-old surgical drug that is now a trendy psychedelic therapy. Read story

File - Pilots conduct a pre-flight check in the cockpit of a jet before taking off from Dallas Fort Worth airport in Grapevine, Texas, on Dec. 2, 2020. Aviation experts say the incident on Sunday in which an off-duty pilot, riding in a jump seat in a cockpit, tried to disable a jetliner in midflight renews questions about the threat posed by airline workers who have special access to places where passengers can't go.

Risk a $250K fine or months without pay? Pilots have few reasons to get mental health help

November 6, 2023, 6:02am Business

Among the first things off-duty pilot Joseph Emerson is said to have told police after he was accused of trying to bring down a Horizon Air flight last month was that he’d been struggling with depression for six months and hadn’t slept in 40 hours. Read story

In the shadow of loss, a mother’s long search for happiness

Lonnie Phillips, right, and his wife, Sandy, sift through their belongings stored at a friend's garage in Lone Tree, Colo., Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. Since Sandy's daughter, Jessica Ghawi, was killed in a 2012 mass shooting in a movie theater, the pace of other mass killings only intensified. Instead of tighter gun laws, some states loosened them. Exhausted, disgusted and impoverished, the Phillipses recently moved to Mexico.

November 5, 2023, 5:46am Health

There’s a look Sandy Phillips came to know each time she arrived somewhere a gunman had made famous. Her road trip through mass shooting sites went on for a decade and always seemed to have a new stop. When she reached it, she’d lock eyes with someone and see the… Read story

Gubernatorial candidates quarrel over glory for winning opioid settlements

Former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, right, introduces his son, and Democratic Gubernatorial candidate for re-election Andy Beshear during a stop of his statewide bus tour in Richmond, Ky., Monday, Oct. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Timothy D.

November 4, 2023, 6:02am Health

Opioid settlement cash is not inherently political. It’s not the result of a law passed by Congress nor an edit to the state budget. It’s not taxpayer money. Rather, it’s coming from health care companies that were sued for fueling the opioid crisis with prescription painkillers. Read story