Author: healthadmin
A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that tested the effectiveness of social media-based mental health interventions found that social media-based mental health interventions led to moderate to high reductions in stress symptoms and low to moderate reductions in the severity of depression and anxiety symptoms. Interventions were more effective when at least 70% of participants were women, when programs were people-driven and socially oriented, and when efficacy was compared to a group receiving care as usual. The paper was published in. Medical Internet Research Journal. More than 1 in 8 adults and adolescents worldwide have a mental disorder. The two…
A person’s economic and political views are shaped by genetic predispositions in cognitive ability that interact with social class in childhood. People with a high genetic potential for cognitive ability are more likely to adopt left-wing policies if they grew up in a poor environment and right-wing policies if they grew up in a wealthy environment. The study was published in the journal Political Psychology. Understanding differences in economic policy preferences is a major goal of political science. Traditional models of political economy assume that individuals support policies that are economically advantageous. In a strictly theoretical system of equal redistribution…
Two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doctors said Wednesday that the risk to the American public from a deadly hantavirus outbreak remains low and that the center is “involved every step of the way.” In a media briefing, they described the agency’s response, which has been criticized by some infectious disease and public health experts as taking a backseat to the World Health Organization and other groups. “I want to start by saying that hantaviruses are known pathogens,” said David Fitter, CDC’s hantavirus response incident manager. “We would like to emphasize that the risk to the general public is…
BeOne Medicines has entered the BCL-2 space, securing FDA green light for Beqalzi, carving out a space of its own ahead of a potential broader clash with market leader Venclexta. The FDA has granted accelerated approval to BeOne’s Beqalzi (sonrotoclax) for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma after receiving at least two lines of therapy, including a BTK inhibitor, the company announced Wednesday. This approval makes Becultzi the first BCL-2 inhibitor specifically approved for MCL in the United States, as Venclexta, first brought to market by AbbVie and Roche, has only been used off-label for…
People listen to true crime podcasts to satisfy various psychological needs, with an emphasis on seeking information and learning about human behavior. However, a new study was published in the journal Psychology of popular media It suggests that people with certain antisocial personality traits tend to tune in for entirely different reasons, such as relaxation or pure entertainment. These findings provide evidence that the widespread appeal of true crime stories derives from their ability to satisfy very different psychological needs across diverse audiences. True crime entertainment occupies a very prominent place in the modern media landscape. Podcasts in particular have…
WASHINGTON – Vice President J.D. Vance on Wednesday announced new steps in the Trump administration’s effort to root out fraud in federal health care programs, including deferring $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to California. “These fraudulent health care providers are getting rich by giving people drugs they don’t need,” Vance said at a White House event, adding that taxpayers and program beneficiaries are falling victim to these scams. Medicare suspends enrollment of new hospice and home health care providers The Republican administration has also imposed a six-month freeze on some new Medicare enrollments and warned states that they risk losing…
Arriving at the isolation ward of a biocontainment hospital is an anxious and frightening experience. In 2014, I spent 19 days in this room while being treated for Ebola, watching the news flash around me as the world faded to a small window, a phone, and a few health care providers in protective gear who entered the room each day. More than a dozen Americans are currently living that way in a quarantine facility in Nebraska. Passengers aboard the MV Hondius, a cruise ship at the center of a small but fruitful outbreak of hantavirus in the Andes. Although the…
The U.S. Air Force and New Mexico’s top environmental officials this week announced an oral agreement to expedite the cleanup of toxic chemicals in the Curry County aquifer around Cannon Air Force Base. Officials said the agreement marks a “thaw” in a relationship that had been tense and litigated, as the U.S. Air Force agreed to pay for the national effort and provide technical assistance to collect water samples and clean up contamination around the base. The contamination was first discovered in 2015, and the state has now identified a four-mile-long plume of firefighting foam containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances…
Desperate to cope with rising insurance costs from natural disasters, some state legislatures are opening up new avenues of attack to force oil companies to bear the costs of climate change. Democratic lawmakers in three states have introduced bills this Congress that would allow insurance companies and state attorneys general to take action against oil companies to offset soaring insurance premiums. None of the measures passed this session, but they signal a growing sense of urgency in a state where wildfires, floods and other disasters have caused premiums to soar and some insurers have stopped writing new policies. The proposal…
Paul Boyer, a psychotherapist at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, has first-hand experience with the AI revolution. He’s a little overwhelmed. The healthcare giant has unveiled a new note-taking software suite created by healthcare AI pioneer Abridge that aims to summarize patient visits at supersonic speed. For many clinicians, this technology alleviates one of life’s persistent headaches: administration and paperwork. But the AI scribe caused another headache for Boyer and his colleagues. That means it’s not very useful. They end up revising notes written on the computer. Mr. Boyer said Mr. Abridge is “not good at picking up on the…