According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there was a 33% increase in the number of teens experiencing depression, a 23% rise in teen suicide attempts, and a 31% surge in the number of teens who died by suicide in the five years between 2010 to 2015. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Foundation says suicide is now the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 to 24. What has gone wrong in the lives of our teens and why at such an alarming rate? Despite the critical nature of this question, there are no clear answers. There is, however, a great deal of speculation, and many say our kids’ use of social media contributes this high suicide rate. In a paper published in Clinical Psychological Science, researcher Jean Twenge and her colleagues found significant increases in depression, suicide attempts, and...

 Drug overdose deaths increased more than 17 percent between 2015 and 2016, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The overdose death rate rose to almost 20 people per 100,000, up from 16.3 per 100,000 the previous year, The New York Times reports. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under age 50, the CDC found. Recently, these deaths have been driven by overdoses of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, according to Dr. Robert Anderson, Chief of the CDC mortality statistics branch. “The main message is the drug rate went up a lot again, and of course we’re worried about it,” he said.

Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is a key factor driving opioid overdose deaths, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fentanyl and similar drugs, such as carfentanil, are increasingly contributing to a complex illegal opioid market with significant public health implications, the CDC said. The CDC analyzed toxicology reports from almost 5,200 fatal opioid overdoses in 10 states between July and December 2016. They found fentanyl and similar drugs were directly responsible for more than half of the opioid overdose deaths, HealthDay reports. In most cases, fentanyl or similar drugs were mixed into heroin, often without the knowledge of the people who overdosed. In almost half of fatal overdoses involving fentanyl, the drugs were injected. Fatal overdoses also occurred when drugs were swallowed or snorted, the CDC said.

New cases of hepatitis C are on the rise as a result of the nation’s opioid epidemic, according to health officials. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced earlier this year that new hepatitis C cases have almost tripled nationwide in just a few years, The Washington Post reports. The increase is largely due to intravenous drug use among young adults. Hepatitis C can be contracted at any point during the drug injection process, including by using a drug cooker or tourniquet with another person’s blood on it, according to Shruti Mehta of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Treating hepatitis C can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and is limited by insurance and Medicaid, the article notes. Treatment is mostly unavailable to people who are still using illicit drugs.

Half of the increase in deaths involving heroin after 2013 can be attributed to heroin mixed with fentanyl, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 33,000 people died of an opioid overdose in the United States in 2015, HealthDay reports. Opioid overdoses accounted for 63 percent of drug overdose deaths in the United States that year. Between 2010 and 2015, heroin overdose deaths quadrupled, from 3,036 to 12,989. A second study by the CDC found about 90 percent of overdose deaths in Ohio early this year involved fentanyl or a chemically related substance. Only 6 percent involved heroin. Young Men and Women’s Brains DO Not Function the Same after Heavy Alcohol Use According to a recent article in Science Daily, Scientists have found that brain functions in young men and women are changed by long-term alcohol use, but that these changes are significantly...

Teen drug overdose deaths rose 19 percent from 2014 to 2015 in the United States, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were 772 drug overdose deaths among U.S. teens ages 15 to 19 in 2015, the report notes. The rate increased from 3.1 deaths per 100,000 teens to 3.7 per 100,000, CNN reports. Most overdose deaths among teens were unintentional, although female deaths were more than twice as likely as male deaths to be suicides. Overdose death rates among those ages 15 to 19 were highest for opioid drugs, specifically heroin.

The rate of drug overdose deaths continues to increase in the United States, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The death rate for drug overdoses reached 19.9 cases per 100,000 people last summer, compared with 16.7 per 100,000 the previous summer, HealthDay reports. The CDC also found an increase in drug overdose deaths for the 12-month period ending in September 2016, compared with the same period a year before—18.5 overdose deaths per 100,000, up from 16.1 deaths per 100,000. Of the 52,404 overdose deaths in 2015, the CDC found 33,091 involved opioids. Prescription or synthetic opioid pain relievers were involved in more than two-thirds of opioid-related overdose deaths.

There was an overall decline in the amount of opioids prescribed in the United States between 2010 and 2015, but the quantity of prescriptions is still extremely high, according to a new government report. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the amount of opioids prescribed was three times higher in 2015 than in 1999, The New York Times reports. The amount of opioids prescribed varies county by county, the CDC found. Half of U.S. counties have seen a decrease in the amount of opioids prescribed from 2010 to 2015. The highest prescribing counties still dispense six times more opioids than the lowest prescribing counties. Far more opioids are prescribed per capita in parts of Maine, Nevada and Tennessee than in most of Iowa, Minnesota and Texas.

Support will strengthen state efforts to prevent and track opioid overdoses The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be awarding more than $12 million to 23 states and the District of Columbia to support their responses to the opioid overdose epidemic. The funds will be used to strengthen prevention efforts and better track of opioid-related overdoses. CDC expects to announce additional funding awards for state opioid overdose prevention programs later in the summer. Increased funding for opioids in the fiscal year (FY) 2017 Omnibus Appropriations bill is allowing CDC to support all states that have applied for funding through the Enhanced State Surveillance of Opioid-Involved Morbidity and Mortality and Mortality (ESOOS) program and the Prescription Drug Overdose: Prevention for States (PfS) program. Under the ESOOS program, $7.5 million will go to 20 additional states and the District of Columbia to better track and prevent opioid-involved nonfatal and fatal overdoses....

Many smokers become addicted to nicotine, a drug that is naturally found in tobacco. More people in the United States are addicted to nicotine than to any other drug – according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nicotine may be as addictive as heroin, cocaine, or alcohol. Quitting smoking is difficult and oftentimes requires several attempts. People who stop smoking often revert back to smoking because of withdrawal symptoms such as feeling irritable, angry or anxious, having trouble thinking, craving tobacco products, feeling hungrier than usual. Federal health regulators continue to de-emphasize electronic cigarettes and vaporizers as smoking-cessation options, even as they acknowledge increased use of the product. The CDC released a 26-month survey of 15,943 adult cigarette smokers, published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, analyzing the most population smoking cessation techniques. The study determined that 74.7 percent of survey participants used multiple methods during their most...