Tom Bocci's encounter with a bacterium he had never heard of began in April, when his doctor suggested a test for prostate cancer. Because the results appeared slightly abnormal, Mr. Bocci underwent a biopsy, taking antibiotics beforehand as a standard precaution against infection.
There was no problem with his prostate, it turned out. But a few days later, Mr. Bocci developed severe diarrhea, fever and vomiting. He grew dehydrated. Five days afterward, in a hospital emergency room, doctors diagnosed a Clostridium difficile infection.
Antibiotics appeared to squelch the infection but, as happens in 20 to 30 percent of cases, the symptoms returned with a vengeance as soon as he finished the drugs. Over several months, Mr. Bocci suffered from migraines, weakness, anxiety and hypertension.
Told to isolate himself, he warned family members not to visit his home in Troy, Mich.; his wife, Wendy, moved into a spare bedroom. He lost 30 pounds. After the third recurrence, "I really thought I was going to die," Mr. Bocci, now 71, said. "And sometimes I felt I wanted to."
More ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/health/clostridium-difficile-c-diff.html?
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Addiction Treatment Grew Under Health Law. Now What? - The New York Times
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Chad Diaz began using heroin when he was 12. Now 36 and newly covered by Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, he is on Suboxone, a substitute opioid that eases withdrawal symptoms and cravings, and he is slowly pulling himself together.
"This is the best my life has gone in many, many years," Mr. Diaz, a big man wearing camouflage, said as he sat in a community health center here.
If Congress and President Trump succeed in dismantling the Affordable Care Act, he will have no insurance to pay for his medication or counseling, and he fears he will slide back to heroin.
"If this gets taken from me, it's right back to Square 1," he said. "And that's not a good place. I'm scary when I'm using. I don't care who I hurt."
As the debate over the fate of the health law intensifies, proponents have focused on the lifesaving care it has brought to people with cancer, diabetes and other physical illnesses. But the law has also had a profound, though perhaps less heralded, effect on mental health and addiction treatment, vastly expanding access to those services by designating them as "essential benefits" that must be covered through the A.C.A. marketplaces and expanded Medicaid.
More …
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/health/addiction-treatment-opiods-aca-obamacare.html
"This is the best my life has gone in many, many years," Mr. Diaz, a big man wearing camouflage, said as he sat in a community health center here.
If Congress and President Trump succeed in dismantling the Affordable Care Act, he will have no insurance to pay for his medication or counseling, and he fears he will slide back to heroin.
"If this gets taken from me, it's right back to Square 1," he said. "And that's not a good place. I'm scary when I'm using. I don't care who I hurt."
As the debate over the fate of the health law intensifies, proponents have focused on the lifesaving care it has brought to people with cancer, diabetes and other physical illnesses. But the law has also had a profound, though perhaps less heralded, effect on mental health and addiction treatment, vastly expanding access to those services by designating them as "essential benefits" that must be covered through the A.C.A. marketplaces and expanded Medicaid.
More …
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/health/addiction-treatment-opiods-aca-obamacare.html
Thursday, February 9, 2017
As mental health crises soar, colleges can't meet student needs - STAT
Colleges across the country are failing to keep up with a troubling spike in demand for mental health care — leaving students stuck on waiting lists for weeks, unable to get help.
STAT surveyed dozens of universities about their mental health services. From major public institutions to small elite colleges, a striking pattern emerged: Students often have to wait weeks just for an initial intake exam to review their symptoms. The wait to see a psychiatrist who can prescribe or adjust medication — often a part-time employee — may be longer still.
Students on many campuses are so frustrated that they launched a petition last month demanding expanded services. They plan to send it to 20 top universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, and Columbia, where seven students have died this school year from suicide and suspected drug overdose.
"Students are turned away every day from receiving the treatment they need, and multiple suicide attempts and deaths go virtually ignored each semester," the petition reads. More than 700 people have signed; many have left comments about their personal experiences trying to get counseling at college. "I'm signing because if a kid in crisis needs help they should not have to wait," one wrote.
More ...
https://www.statnews.com/2017/02/06/mental-health-college-students/
STAT surveyed dozens of universities about their mental health services. From major public institutions to small elite colleges, a striking pattern emerged: Students often have to wait weeks just for an initial intake exam to review their symptoms. The wait to see a psychiatrist who can prescribe or adjust medication — often a part-time employee — may be longer still.
Students on many campuses are so frustrated that they launched a petition last month demanding expanded services. They plan to send it to 20 top universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, and Columbia, where seven students have died this school year from suicide and suspected drug overdose.
"Students are turned away every day from receiving the treatment they need, and multiple suicide attempts and deaths go virtually ignored each semester," the petition reads. More than 700 people have signed; many have left comments about their personal experiences trying to get counseling at college. "I'm signing because if a kid in crisis needs help they should not have to wait," one wrote.
More ...
https://www.statnews.com/2017/02/06/mental-health-college-students/
Why the advice to take all your antibiotics may be wrong - STAT
You've heard it many times before from your doctor: If you're taking antibiotics, don't stop taking them until the pill vial is empty, even if you feel better.
The rationale behind this commandment has always been that stopping treatment too soon would fuel the development of antibiotic resistance — the ability of bugs to evade these drugs. Information campaigns aimed at getting the public to take antibiotics properly have been driving home this message for decades.
But the warning, a growing number of experts say, is misguided and may actually be exacerbating antibiotic resistance.
More ...
https://www.statnews.com/2017/02/09/antibiotics-resistance-superbugs/?
The rationale behind this commandment has always been that stopping treatment too soon would fuel the development of antibiotic resistance — the ability of bugs to evade these drugs. Information campaigns aimed at getting the public to take antibiotics properly have been driving home this message for decades.
But the warning, a growing number of experts say, is misguided and may actually be exacerbating antibiotic resistance.
More ...
https://www.statnews.com/2017/02/09/antibiotics-resistance-superbugs/?
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