Medicine & Drugs, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 31, 2016

EpiPen Alternatives Exist, and They May be Cheaper

The soaring price of the EpiPen has garnered controversy recently, but there are alternatives to this well-known allergy treatment device. The EpiPen belongs to a class of medical devices known as epinephrine auto-injectors, which allow people to quickly inject a precise dose of the drug epinephrine. The devices are used...

Jun 30, 2016

Seeing Green: Pot Changes Brain's Response to Money

Smoking marijuana may change the way people's brains respond to certain rewards, such as the prospect of winning some money, according to a new study. In the study, participants played a game in which they could win a small amount of money. The researchers found that the brains of people...

Apr 30, 2016

Macklemore Tells Obama About How He Once Abused Prescription Drugs

If you're wondering why prescription drugs containing opioids are so addictive, just ask Grammy Award-winning rap artist Macklemore. This past Saturday (May 14), Barack Obama invited Macklemore to talk about opioid addiction during the president's online weekly address at the White House. I'm here with President Obama because I take...

Feb 29, 2016

Marijuana May Help Cancer Patients, But Questions Remain

Marijuana could potentially help cancer patients who have nausea or pain, and could possibly even be used as a treatment for certain cancers, but much more research is needed before any of these uses could be recommended, a new review article said. There is promising research on marijuana use in...

Jan 31, 2016

Coffee Pot: What Happens When You Mix Marijuana & Caffeine?

You can now add coffee to the growing list of foods and drinks that are available as products infused with marijuana. Several companies have started selling cannabis-laced coffee, claiming to give users an added buzz to their cup of joe. But what happens when you combine two psychoactive substances: marijuana...

Jan 31, 2016

Unexpected Stop for Marijuana Tourists? The Emergency Room

A phenomenon called marijuana tourism may be leading to an uptick in marijuana-related emergency-room visits in Colorado, one of the few states where recreational use of the drug is legal, a new report finds. Since it became legal to sell marijuana in Colorado in 2014, the number of emergency-room visits...

Nov 30, 2017

New Migraine Drugs May Stop Headaches Before They Start

People with frequent — sometimes daily — migraines may benefit from a new class of medications intended to prevent these severe headaches before they start, two new studies suggest. Both of the studies tested long-acting drugs that were administered as injections once a month, to once every three months. The...

Aug 31, 2017

The Real Reason Some People Become Addicted to Drugs

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Why do they do it? This is a question that friends and families often ask of those who are addicted. It's difficult to explain how drug addiction develops over...

Jul 31, 2017

Opioid Crisis Is a 'National Emergency': What Happens Now?

President Donald Trump has declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency, but what happens now, and could this declaration really help address the crisis? On Thursday (Aug. 10), Trump told reporters that the opioid epidemic is a national emergency. We're going to spend a lot of time, a lot of...

May 31, 2017

FDA Asks Drug Company to Pull Painkiller in First

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today (June 8) that it has requested that Endo Pharmaceuticals, a drug company, remove the opioid painkiller Opana ER from the drug market. This is the first time that the federal agency has requested that a drug company voluntarily stop selling a...

May 31, 2017

Drug May Help with Common Form of Vision Loss

An experimental drug reduces eye damage in people with a common form of vision loss for which there is currently no available treatment, a new study finds. The new research sought to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss in industrialized countries, according to the World...

Jan 31, 2017

Here's Why Synthetic Marijuana Isn't Safe

Synthetic marijuana compounds, sometimes called K2 or Spice, are actually chemically different from marijuana, and are more dangerous than pot, according to a new review of studies. Synthetic marijuana compounds are linked to a number of serious side effects, including seizures, psychosis and even death, the review's authors said. These...

Oct 31, 2018

6 Doctors Swallowed and Pooped Lego Minifigures So You Don't Have To

Earlier this year, six pediatric scientists decapitated six Lego minifigures, then swallowed the heads. The researchers did this to answer a simple, scientific question: How long does it take to poop a brick? The answer, for those of you teetering on the edges of your seats, is about two to...

Jul 31, 2018

Nonaddictive Opioid Alternative Shows Promise in Monkey Study

With the opioid epidemic raging across America, many scientists are in search of an alternative painkilling drug — one that could be used in place of opioids, without the deadly side effects. Now, a team of researchers in the U.S. and Japan say they've developed a promising new synthetic drug...

Feb 28, 2018

Are People Actually Smoking Bug-Spray-Laced Drugs? Either Way, It's a Bad Idea.

Street drugs in Indianapolis may be laced with an unusual ingredient: household bug spray, according to news reports. The IndyStar reports that marijuana, synthetic cannabinoids, tobacco and even banana leaves could be intentionally drenched in bug spray. People who take the bug-spray-laced drugs can slide into an unresponsive stupor that...