You know you locked the door before you left. You’re positive. But you check again…and again. Maybe a few more times. Or a dozen. This likely sounds strange to someone who’s never dealt with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), but for patients with the disease, these behaviors – often called “safety behaviors” – act as coping […]
People of a certain age remember thalidomide. Thalidomide was a sedative that was often prescribed to pregnant women during the 1950s. However, doctors soon noticed it had a terrible side effect: Babies born to mothers who had taken the drug were often born with deformities, including phocomelia, a syndrome causing deformed limbs. By some counts, […]
Late last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported over 47,000 people died of a drug overdose in the U.S. during 2014, an all-time high. Over 14,000 were due to prescription opioids. So it’s not surprising much of the focus on prescription overdoses has been on opioid painkillers like oxycodone. Certainly, opiate […]