alcohol

Prescription Drug OD Deaths Up in Florida

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Medical News: Alprazolam Among Top Causes of Fatal Overdoses in Florida – in Public Health & Policy, Public Health from MedPage Today

Deaths in Florida involving prescription drugs in 2009 were four times as common as those related to illicit drugs, with alprazolam (Xanax) joining opioids among the top killers, the CDC reported.

From 2003 to 2009, the death rate in Florida from overdoses of prescription drugs increased 84.2%, from 7.3 to 13.4 per 100,000 population, according to data from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission analyzed by the CDC in the July 8 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Time to tighten up your anxiety/depression underwriting guidelines?  How about script checks at lower amounts?  Can you differentiate between the applicant who wants to off himself versus plain vanilla anxiety?

 

 

Alcohol and Seniors

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NIHSeniorHealth: Alcohol Use and Older Adults – Table of contents

This is a nice little informational website from the NIH.  The first video features a 77 year young woman who developed alcoholism late in life after a lung cancer diagnosis.  She got up to a liter of wine daily when it became a problem.

Binge Drinking and HTN

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Binge Drinking, Hypertension a Deadly Combo

The report is published in the Aug. 19 online edition of Stroke.

For the study, Ohrr’s team collected data on 6,100 men and women living in a farming community. The researchers followed these people for almost 21 years.

The participants were divided into four groups: nondrinkers, non-binge drinkers, moderate binge drinkers (defined as having six or more drinks on one occasion), and heavy binge drinkers (defined as having 12 or more drinks on one occasion).

Among the men with high blood pressure, 17.8 percent were moderate binge drinkers, and 3.9 percent were heavy binge drinkers (a percentage similar to the men with normal blood pressure). As for the women, there were too few who said they were binge drinkers to be able to draw conclusions, the researchers said.

Ohrr’s group found that compared with nondrinkers, the risk of stroke among men with high blood pressure was increased threefold. If these men drank six or more drinks at one time, their risk for stroke increased fourfold, and with 12 drinks or more, the risk rose 12-fold.

Thought For Today – 5/15/10

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I know people have been asking about drinking and being diabetic, and it’s a very honest question,” he blogged. “Here is the honest answer, and this is the truth: when I say ‘party’ and ‘let’s have fun,’ I’m one of those guys that just likes to have a great time. I’m not a belligerent drunk. I don’t need to drink. … For a diabetic … it’s a double whammy because here’s what happens with alcohol: when you’re hung-over then you don’t eat right, you don’t take your insulin right. So it’s best to stay away. But, I pick and choose my times when I’m going to have fun.

Reality star and aging rocker Bret Michaels, just weeks before his cerebral hemorrhage.

Energy Drinks + ETOH = Bad Combo

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There is a link to the original study in PDF format within the AAFP article.

Alcohol/Energy Drink Combo Leads to Higher Intoxication, Driving Risk — AAFP News Now — American Academy of Family Physicians

“Caffeine appears to reduce subjective perceptions of alcohol intoxication, but it does not ameliorate the performance deficits produced by alcohol,” said Thombs. “(Individuals) are more alert but just as behaviorally impaired as if they did not consume caffeine.”