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People who receive organ transplants must go on a regimen of drugs to suppress their immune response and allow the organ to survive and function. Yet when that strategy is working it also leaves people without the ability to respond …

Regimens to suppress immune system function are a double-edged sword, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more »

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People who’ve gotten transplants such as kidneys take drugs to keep their immune system from attacking the organ, called immunosuppression, but also damp down their response to vaccinations, a big issue during the pandemic. Now a new study is examining …

A new study aims to help vaccines work better in people who’ve had a transplant, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more »

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1.2 million overdose deaths by 2029 in North America. That’s the sobering projection of a recent Lancet study. Eric Strain, a substance use disorders expert at Johns Hopkins, says an all encompassing strategy beginning early in life makes sense to …

Prevention of substance abuse will require a multipronged approach, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more »

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1.2 million deaths. No, that’s not due to Covid-19, but is the projection of a recent Lancet study on drug overdoses in North America by 2029 if current practices remain in place, including those intending to help. Substance use disorders …

Stemming the tide of overdose death may require a rebuild of how we think about the problem, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more »

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Trying to clean up street drugs used to mean interdiction, where authorities would search and seize imported cocaine or heroin, for example. Johns Hopkins substance use disorder expert Eric Strain says things are different now, and even trying to slow …

When street drugs are synthetic interdiction is much more challenging, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more »

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Heroin from opium poppies, cocaine from the coca plant. Not anymore, says substance use disorder expert Eric Stain at Johns Hopkins.  Strain: We’re shifting in our drug use from plant-based drugs of abuse to manufacture-based drugs of abuse. Rather than …

How have drugs of abuse changed in the last few years? Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more »

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100,000. That’s the official word on how many deaths due to drug overdoses have taken place in the US in the last year, with a new analysis in the Lancet projecting over a million overdose deaths in North America if …

Drug overdose deaths are higher than ever, Elizabeth Tracey reports Read more »