News Mentions for the week of February 26, 2024
Our faculty often provide insight on current events and topics in the news.
Explore some of the articles that they have contributed to or been quoted in recently below.
- Business Insider
The 10 best mattresses for back sleepers in 2024, tested by experts
Logan Schneider, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, provides tips related to risk for sleep breathing problems and other considerations when choosing the right mattress.
- Fortune Well
The caregiver’s guide to anxiety and depression: How to help a loved one (and yourself) with mental health
Providing care for a loved one with depression and/or anxiety is a difficult job. These strategies can help. Anna Lembke, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, provide comment.
- Davis Vanguard
California Senate Leaders Unveil Bipartisan Legislative Package Attacking Fentanyl Crisis, Retail Crime
Senate President Pro-Tem Mike McGuire (D-North Coast), alongside a bipartisan coalition of Senate members, unveiled a comprehensive legislative package this week here at the Capitol addressing the fentanyl crisis and retail and community-based crime in California. Keith Humphreys, the Esther Ting Memorial professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, provides comment.
- Mission Local
Breed’s broadside against harm reduction isn't based on facts, experts say
Half a dozen public health experts said Mayor London Breed’s recent comments denigrating harm reduction went against best practice. Keith Humphreys, the Esther Ting Memorial professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, provides comment.
- USA Today
Mental health crisis fuels the post-pandemic rise in medication use
Even before the pandemic, the use of mental health drugs was on the rise due to more affordable medication options and broadening acceptance of mental health treatment. That increase accelerated as the pandemic deepened the country’s mental health crisis following widespread loss and adversity. Smita Das, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s addiction council, provides comment.
- Sleep Review
How to Diagnose Restless Legs Syndrome Across Ages
Communication challenges can complicate the diagnosis of RLS. Sleep experts navigate these complexities for patients of different ages. Mark Buchfuhrer, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, is quoted.
- KCRW - Life Examined
Midweek Reset: Are you addicted?
This week, Anna Lembke, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and author of “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence,” provides the clinical definition of addiction and says it’s becoming easier than ever adopt addictive behaviors but harder to spot the addiction in ourselves.
- Scope Blog - Stanford Medicine
For those with an alcohol problem, are non-alcoholic beverages a wise choice?
Read this Q&A with Molly Bowdring, clinical scholar in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, on whether non-alcoholic beverages are helpful or harmful for those with alcohol use disorders.
- Los Angeles Times
Some California D.A.s are fighting fentanyl with murder charges. Why San Francisco will join them
San Francisco is following the lead of more conservative counties, launching an investigative unit to target fentanyl deaths as homicide cases. That means drug dealers could be charged with murder. Keith Humphreys, the Esther Ting Memorial professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, provides comment.
- NPR
How Portugal eased its opioid epidemic, while U.S. drug deaths skyrocketed
Talk to people addicted to street drugs in Lisbon, Portugal's capital, and you hear confusion and dismay over the carnage of overdose deaths taking place an ocean away in the U.S. In the U.S., drug deaths are shatteringly common, killing roughly 112,000 people a year. In Portugal, weeks sometimes go by in the entire country without a single fatal overdose. Keith Humphreys, the Esther Ting Memorial professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, provides comment.