A kid doesn’t have to bring an odd-looking homemade device to school to attract attention from the authorities. A prescription pill will do the trick. A child who pulls out an antibiotic capsule at the water fountain may be marched to the principal’s office for questioning. Schools have to comply with drug laws, and they…
The CBS program “Limitless” is one of the hottest crime dramas on American television right now. Based on a movie of the same name, the series dramatizes what happens when the main character takes a pill that gives him access to every neuron in his brain. This allows him to recall every memory he has…
Grady Health System physicians and officials say the HIV crisis continues to grow in metro Atlanta, with young black men in poverty at the highest risk for infection. The Grady staff outlined the extent of the problem in a meeting with U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) on Monday, the day before World AIDS Day. The…
New, ultra-expensive drugs have helped fuel the rise of health care costs, experts say. The number of patients taking at least $100,000 worth of prescription drugs annually tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to a report from pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts. But Dorothy Leone-Glasser says cracking down on drug prices would be a shortsighted and…
I should be dead. I’ve survived two cancer diagnoses, two strokes, a heart attack, kidney failure, a coma, arthritis and systematic lupus. I’ve fought my way out of a wheelchair, abandoned my crutches, and relearned how to walk. None of that would have been possible without the development of new medical treatments, which have saved…
Many Georgians buying individual or family health insurance will see double-digit increases in their premiums for 2016. Insurance rates approved recently by Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens range from hikes of 27 percent and 29 percent for Alliant Health Plans’ individual policyholders to slight decreases for a few plans. An analysis by Bill Custer, a…
The state’s Department of Community Health is asking for additional state funds to cover projected Georgia enrollment for Medicaid and PeachCare, which for the first time will exceed 2 million. The budget proposal also requests $23 million to cover the high cost of drugs to treat hepatitis C patients in both the midyear fiscal 2016…
People who have recently used illicit drugs have a higher likelihood of misusing prescription painkillers as well, a University of Georgia study has found. The nationwide study, published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, also revealed a significant age difference in how people obtain these pain medications. According to this tampa drug rehab, older adults were…
Dallas Gay of Hall County began to see things in a new light in 2009, when he discovered that his grandson had a serious drug problem. It was the nature of the drug that was especially surprising. Jeffrey Gay’s demon was not crystal meth, crack, or some other illicit substance. He was hooked on legal…
$1,300 a month. That’s how much Kerry Tucker spends for the “biologic” medication to treat her arthritis. “And I have health insurance,’’ she told lawmakers Thursday. Biologic drugs are specially engineered drugs that have made a major difference in people’s ability to handle their symptoms from arthritis and other diseases. But they also carry a…