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Why do bad menstrual cramps happen to good people? A study that answers this question would receive the Gaffney Prize (from me). Until that happens, we have the Nobels. STAT’s Drew Joseph has more on the first announcement of the week, in physiology or medicine, below.
Medicine Nobel moves to microRNA discovery
A pair of scientists who discovered a type of RNA molecule that helps control the activity of genes — allowing our cells to perform all their myriad functions in different tissues throughout the body — won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology on Monday.
The prize went to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their research into microRNA, which the Nobel Committee described as a ‘groundbreaking discovery’. [that] revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans.”
Ambros conducted his award-winning research at Harvard University and is now a student at UMass Chan Medical School. Ruvkun did his work at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he remains a professor of genetics.
The couple will split the reward of 11 million Swedish crowns, or just over $1 million. They join the ranks of Nobel laureates in medicine and physiology that numbered 227 before this year, including 13 women.
More here from Drew.
201.5
That’s the average number of recipes for the dual-drug abortion pill regiment that an online pharmacy filled daily in March 2023, almost a year after Roe vs. Wade was cut, according to a study published Friday in JAMA Network Open. In March 2022, before the decision was leaked, the same pharmacy filled an average of 88.5 prescriptions per day.
Follow STAT’s abortion and health technology coverage.
Progeria lawyer Sammy Basso has died
At age 28, Sammy Basso was the oldest known survivor of progeria, an extremely rare disease. His life was completely different from other people’s, but he lived with the belief that he could connect with anyone, STAT’s Eric Boodman wrote in an obituary. Basso died Saturday of suspected cardiovascular complications from progeria.
He knew the disease made him look unusual – bald, eyebrowless, prematurely old, a bit like ET – and he liked to joke about it. He did it outside a friend’s house on Halloween and was thrilled by the reactions of children as he passed out candy. He did it outside Area 51, the Nevada military base synonymous with UFOs and extraterrestrial life. “He put on a pair of crazy sunglasses that looked like alien goggles and sat on a park bench, leading countless tourists to believe they had discovered the real thing,” recalls Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health. Read more about Basso’s remarkable life.
New data on substance use and young people in hospitals
Evidence is generally mixed on how substance use among young people may have changed during the pandemic. But a survey of 10- to 18-year-olds in 47 pediatric emergency departments, published Friday in JAMA Network Open, found that the number of drug and alcohol related visits increased during the pandemic, and young people with chronic health conditions were particularly vulnerable. Young people with chronic conditions had nine times more emergency room visits due to substance use during the pandemic than those without. Those with complex chronic conditions received four times as many visits.
Another study also published Friday in JAMA Network Open assessed the differences in alcohol and drug checks of injured teens in 121 pediatric trauma centers. Rates of both were disproportionately higher among black, Hispanic, American Indian teens, girls and people with Medicaid or who are uninsured. It may be a problem of physician bias, the authors write. But less screening of certain populations is not the solution; Substance use is one of the leading causes of death among adolescents.
Authors of both studies emphasized the need for more standardized, universal screening protocols.
What a revolution in mental health financing could look like
In five years, the mental health landscape will look radically different. That’s according to Miranda Wolpert, director of mental health at the charity Wellcome. It can be difficult to find funding for innovations in mental health care. But innovative financing mechanisms such as philanthropic, public-private partnerships could be the answer, Wolpert argues in a First Opinion essay.
In South Africa, one partnership is helping to secure mental health care for new mothers. In California, a committee imposed a 1% income tax on wealthy residents to pay for mental health care. Read more from Wolpert about what change could look like.
What we read
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Here’s why obesity grew so quickly worldwide, and where that’s starting to change, STAT
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A young doctor’s last words serve as a warning for the mental health of others. WashingtonPost
- Trump backs away from proposal to lower prescription drug prices by tying them to foreign countries, STAT
- Catholic hospital offered bucket and towels to woman who denied abortion, says California AG: The 19th
- Rwanda to receive experimental vaccines, therapies to combat Marburg outbreak, STAT
- The activists working to abolish IVF, NPR