Ketamine: what you need to know about the UK’s growing drug problem

Sep 29, 2024 10:19 am UTC| Insights & Views Law Health

There is growing awareness of the problems caused by the use of a fast-acting drug called ketamine. Often referred to as K or ket, it was made a class B drug in the UK in 2014 and is illegal to buy or sell. Possessing the...

Workplace wellbeing programmes often don’t work – but here’s how to make them better

Sep 29, 2024 10:18 am UTC| Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) has just published alarming statistics showing that employee mental health issues result in a US$1 trillion (747 billion) loss in productivity each year. The WHO has called on employers...

Access to a GP can make all the difference in surviving lung cancer – and that is a problem for Māori

Sep 29, 2024 10:16 am UTC| Health

Surviving lung cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand could depend on whether you can access a GP raising questions about equity in the countrys health system. Our new research examines the outcomes for patients who are...

Friday essay: ‘I know my ache is not your pain’ – disabled writers imagine a healthier world

Sep 29, 2024 10:15 am UTC| Insights & Views Health

There are many reasons why I shouldnt be here. If youd shown my ten-year-old self my life as it is now, hed have been stunned, mostly because he half-expected an early death. My father, who had Marfan Syndrome, the genetic...

What pathogen might spark the next pandemic? How scientists are preparing for ‘disease X’

Sep 29, 2024 10:14 am UTC| Health

Before the COVID pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) had made a list of priority infectious diseases. These were felt to pose a threat to international public health, but where research was still needed to...

Why is it so hard to get drugs approved for use during pregnancy?

Sep 19, 2024 01:27 am UTC| Health

Nobody wants to see another Thalidomide tragedy. The drug was prescribed to pregnant women during the 1950s and early 1960s to treat nausea. But it led to more than 10,000 children worldwide with irreversible birth...

Operating on the wrong body part – what can be done to prevent it?

Sep 19, 2024 01:23 am UTC| Health

A 70-year-old man from Alabama recently died at a hospital in Florida when a surgeon mistakenly removed his liver instead of his spleen. This type of medical error is known as a never event because it should never have...