A 2026 emergency department claims analysis estimated 3.87 million United States ED visits in 2021 where take-home naloxone could have been clinically relevant, compared with 226,453 ED-treated opioid-overdose visits in the same database.1 The finding reframes naloxone distribution as an emergency-care workflow for overdose risk, polysubstance exposure, long-term opioid use, and patients who arrive after …
Australian coronial data show that fatal poisonings involving new psychoactive stimulants and hallucinogens were rarely single-drug events. In 70 toxicology-confirmed deaths from 2007 through 2025, 92.9% involved other psychoactive drugs and 75.7% involved multiple stimulants or hallucinogens. Research Highlights Fatal cases were usually polysubstance cases: 65 of 70 deaths (92.9%) had psychoactive drugs beyond the …
A 2026 rat study found that 21 days of late-adolescent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) exposure produced adult anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze and weaker novel object recognition than vehicle exposure. The controlled animal result gives a biologically anchored model for why repeated high-THC exposure during development remains a real concern.1 Research Highlights Late-adolescent THC exposure …
A 12-week text-message intervention for people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders improved diabetes self-management confidence and patient activation, but it did not yet move weight, HbA1c, physical activity, or psychiatric symptoms. SMART looked feasible and psychologically useful in this uncontrolled pilot; cardiometabolic outcomes need a full-scale randomized trial with longer follow-up.1 Research Highlights SMART was tested …
Clozapine has been the most effective antipsychotic in schizophrenia for almost 40 years, yet it is still routinely held back until patients have failed multiple alternatives over many years — a “third-line, after years of failure” default that a 2026 Current Opinion review by Davani et al. argues is no longer supported by the evidence.1 …
Adding music to ketamine psychotherapy failed to provide extra antidepressant benefit over matched non-music support in a 2026 randomized clinical trial (RCT; a study that assigns participants to groups by chance), even though the full 6-infusion ketamine-psychotherapy course was followed by large depression-score reductions. Research Highlights Music added no confirmed MADRS benefit: in the MUSIK …
GLP-1 drugs are usually described as appetite drugs, but a 2026 Nature mouse study mapped a more specific reward circuit: small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonists suppressed palatable-food intake through Glp1r-expressing central-amygdala neurons that reduced dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens during high-fat-food retrieval.1 That mechanism makes binge-eating and substance-use hypotheses more plausible without turning an animal …