The head lice drug ivermectin is being touted as a coronavirus killer. But studies suggest it would need to be taken in mega-doses far higher than those currently used, with unknown side-effects.
With regular music festivals, people can more easily seek help or advice about drug and alcohol or mental health issues. But with drive-ins we need to be creative to minimise harms.
As public figures and some in the media touted hydroxychloroquine, prescriptions skyrocketed.
Grace Cary / Moment via Getty Images
When news reports tout a drug, people get interested, even if the benefits are unproven. Patient hopes, requests and demands can easily turn into real prescriptions in their doctor’s office.
SARS-CoV-2 turns on a cellular switch to build the tubes in this photo – called filopodia – that might help viral particles – the little spheres – spread more easily.
Dr Elizabeth Fischer, NIAID NIH / Bouhaddou et al. Elsevier 2020
Nevan Krogan, University of California, San Francisco
Kinases are cellular control switches. When they malfunction, they can cause cancer. The coronavirus hijacks these kinases to replicate, and cancer drugs that target them could fight COVID-19.
Corporate boards with women on them are more likely to recall dangerous products.
Image Source/Getty Images
After firms add more women to their board, dangerous medical products are recalled more quickly.
It takes a tremendous amount of computing power to simulate all the components and behaviors of viruses and cells.
Copyright: Thomas Splettstoesser scistyle.com
Scanning through billions of chemicals to find a few potential drugs for treating COVID-19 requires computers that harness together thousands of processors.
New rules attempt to curb opioid-related deaths in Australia. These changes are a step in the right direction – but we need to tread carefully to avoid unintended consequences.
Europe remains by far the leader in the global trade of pharmaceuticals.
Loïc Venance/AFP
The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare Europe’s vulnerability to drug-supply disruption. Still, it remains by far the world leader in pharmaceutical products.
High potency cannabis, like “skunk”, has higher levels of THC.
martin_stuard/ Shutterstock
People who used strains with higher levels of THC were two times more likely to have anxiety – and four times more likely to report problems from their use.
Production of coca leaf, the raw material in cocaine, is surging in Peru despite 40 years of forced eradication designed to convince farmers to abandon it. Bolivia shows a better way forward.
Chronic pain is everyone’s problem. It’s costly, debilitating and, according to new statistics, increasingly common. Reversing the trend is achieveable but far from easy.
Nevan Krogan, University of California, San Francisco
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, identified nine existing drugs that show promise to treat COVID-19. The proteins they target haven’t been tried before.
People who use illicit drugs are at increased risk during the coronavirus pandemic. But minimising that risk will improve their well-being and help avoid additional pressure on the health system.