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Why do unhealthy menstrual cramps occur to good folks? A examine answering that query would get the Gaffney Prize (from me). Till that occurs, we’ve received the Nobels. STAT’s Drew Joseph has extra under on the primary announcement of the week, in physiology or drugs.
Drugs Nobel goes to microRNA discovery
A pair of scientists who found a sort of RNA molecule that helps management the exercise of genes — permitting our cells to carry out all their myriad of capabilities in numerous tissues all through the physique — gained the 2024 Nobel Prize in drugs or physiology on Monday.
The award went to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for his or her analysis into microRNA, which the Nobel committee described as a “groundbreaking discovery [that] revealed a very new precept of gene regulation that turned out to be important for multicellular organisms, together with people.”
Ambros performed his prize-winning analysis at Harvard College and is now at UMass Chan Medical Faculty. Ruvkun did his work at Massachusetts Common Hospital and Harvard Medical Faculty, the place he stays a professor of genetics.
The pair will break up the award of 11 million Swedish kronor, or simply over $1 million. They be part of the ranks of drugs or physiology Nobel laureates that previous to this yr had 227 folks, together with 13 ladies.
Extra right here from Drew.
201.5
That’s the common variety of prescriptions for the twin treatment abortion capsule regiment that one on-line pharmacy fulfilled day by day in March 2023, virtually one yr after Roe vs. Wade was struck down, in line with a examine printed Friday in JAMA Community Open. In March 2022, earlier than the choice was leaked, the identical pharmacy stuffed 88.5 prescriptions per day on common.
Comply with STAT’s abortion and well being tech protection.
Progeria advocate Sammy Basso has died
At 28, Sammy Basso was the oldest recognized survivor of progeria, an ultra-rare illness. His life was totally not like different folks’s, however he lived it with the conviction that he may join with anyone, STAT’s Eric Boodman wrote in an obituary. Basso died on Saturday from suspected cardiovascular problems of progeria.
He knew the illness made him look uncommon — bald, eyebrowless, prematurely aged, a bit like E.T. — and he cherished to joke about it. He did it outdoors a good friend’s home on Halloween, delighting in youngsters’ reactions as he handed out sweet. He did it outdoors Space 51, the Nevada navy base synonymous with UFOs and extraterrestrial life. “He placed on some loopy sun shades that seemed like alien eyewear and sat on a park bench, inflicting quite a few vacationers to truly imagine they’d found the actual factor,” recalled Francis Collins, former director of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. Learn extra about Basso’s outstanding life.
New information on substance use and younger folks in hospitals
Proof is mostly combined on how substance use amongst youth might have modified through the pandemic. However a examine of 10- to 18-year-olds in 47 pediatric emergency departments, printed Friday in JAMA Community Open, discovered that drug- and alcohol-related visits elevated through the pandemic, and younger folks with continual well being situations had been notably weak. Youths with continual situations had 9 occasions extra ED visits for substance use than these with out through the pandemic. These with advanced continual situations had 4 occasions as many visits.
One other examine additionally printed Friday in JAMA Community Open assessed disparities in alcohol and drug screenings of injured teenagers in 121 pediatric trauma facilities. Charges of each had been disproportionately larger amongst Black, Hispanic, American-Indian teenagers, ladies, and people with Medicaid or who’re uninsured. It’s probably an issue of clinician bias, the authors write. However screening sure populations much less isn’t the reply — substance use is a number one reason behind dying for adolescents.
Authors from each research highlighted the necessity for extra standardized, common screening protocols.
What a revolution in funding psychological well being care may seem like
In 5 years, the psychological well being remedy panorama will look radically completely different. So says Miranda Wolpert, director of psychological well being on the charitable belief Wellcome. It may be powerful to seek out funding for improvements in psychological well being care. However progressive financing mechanisms, like philanthropic-public-private partnerships may very well be the reply, Wolpert argues in a First Opinion essay.
In South Africa, one partnership helps to safe psychological well being checks for brand new moms. In California, a fee carried out a 1% earnings tax on rich residents to pay for psychological well being companies. Learn extra from Wolpert about what change may seem like.
What we’re studying
Right here’s why weight problems grew so rapidly worldwide, and the place that’s beginning to change, STAT
A younger physician’s remaining phrases provide a psychological well being warning for others, Washington Publish
Trump backs off proposal to slash prescription drug costs by linking them to overseas nations, STAT
Catholic hospital supplied a bucket and towels to girl it denied abortion, California AG says, The nineteenth
Rwanda to obtain experimental vaccines, therapeutics to fight Marburg outbreak, STAT
The activists working to abolish IVF, NPR
