Huge declines in patient visits during the coronavirus pandemic have slashed U.S. primary care doctors’ revenues, a new study finds. As a result of decreases in office visits and fees for services from March to May during the pandemic, a full-time primary care physician will lose an average of more than $65,000 in revenue in 2020. Overall, primary care practices nationwide stand to lose nearly $15 billion, according to the study led by a team from Harvard Medical School in Boston. “For many primary care practices, particularly those serving the most vulnerable populations, these losses could be catastrophic, with many practices being forced to close,” study author Dr. Sanjay Basu, a faculty affiliate at Harvard’s Center for Primary Care, said in a university news release. “This could weaken the U.S. health system dramatically at a time when we need it to be at its strongest.” Researchers warned that revenue losses would rise if there is a second wave of infection this year or reimbursement rates for telehealth visits return to pre-pandemic levels. Such losses could lead practices to close and worsen an existing shortage of primary care providers in the United States. “Our prior work shows that primary care saves lives, and loss of primary care practices will translate to lives lost across the United States,” said study co-author Dr. Russell Phillips, director of the…  read on >

More and more U.S. states are allowing marijuana to be taken as medicine, and a new study suggests that users do indeed feel better. In a survey of nearly 1,300 people with chronic health conditions, researchers found that those using “medicinal cannabis” reported less pain, better sleep and reduced anxiety. They also tended to use fewer prescription medications and were less likely to have been to the hospital recently. A majority of U.S. states have made marijuana legal for medical or recreational use, and studies have looked at whether those laws are linked to increased marijuana use, car accidents or emergency room visits. But little research has examined the impact of legalization on the people who use medicinal cannabis, said senior study author Ryan Vandrey, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. The finding that cannabis users felt better than nonusers is not necessarily surprising, according to Vandrey. But it’s important to demonstrate it in a study, he said. The results do not prove, however, that medicinal cannabis is effective. It’s also unclear whether certain products were linked to particular benefits. Medicinal cannabis included not only formulations of THC — the chemical behind marijuana’s “high” — but also cannabidiol, or CBD, which does not create a high. Fifty-eight percent of users were taking “CBD-dominant” oils,…  read on >

Happy couples apparently make good bedfellows. New research says that when happy couples sleep together, they tend to have more — and less disrupted — rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The REM phase of sleep is when you dream, and it’s been linked to emotion regulation, memory consolidation and creative problem-solving, the researchers said. “There is — even in the medical community — the notion that if you sleep with a partner, you might subjectively think that you slept well or better, but objectively, your sleep is more disturbed,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Henning Drews, a resident and post-doctoral scholar at the Center for Integrative Psychiatry in Kiel, Germany. But, he noted that the current study found that “if you want to share a bed with your partner, there is nothing to be said against it. It might even be very good for you.” For the study, 12 young, healthy couples between 18 and 29 years old volunteered to spend four nights in a sleep lab. They had been sleeping together most nights for at least three months. For two nights, the couples slept in different rooms. On another two nights, they slept together. Half of the group started apart, while the other half started the study together. Using polysomnography, the researchers simultaneously measured what went on during sleep in each partner. Polysomnography…  read on >

As the United States reported yet another record-breaking number of new coronavirus cases on Thursday, public health officials warned that younger Americans now account for an ever-growing percentage of infections. In Arizona, where drive-up testing sites were being overwhelmed, nearly half of all cases are being seen in those aged 20 to 44, The New York Times reported. In Florida, which has been routinely breaking records for new cases in the past week, the median age of residents testing positive for the virus has dropped to 35, down from 65 in March. In Texas, where cases are soaring and hospitals are nearing capacity, young people now make up the majority of new cases in several urban areas, the newspaper said. “What is clear is that the proportion of people who are younger appears to have dramatically changed,” said Joseph McCormick, a professor of epidemiology at UTHealth School of Public Health in Brownsville, Texas, told the Times. “It’s really quite disturbing.” The troubling news came as the United States recorded nearly 40,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the Washington Post reported. COVID-19 infections in the United States had been slowing since the prior record of 36,739 cases back on April 24, but case counts have roared back in recent weeks, the Times reported. Coronavirus cases are surging the most in the South and West. On Thursday,…  read on >

Blood plasma transfusions from people who have developed antibodies to the new coronavirus appear to be safe for many COVID-19 patients, a large study suggests. The experimental treatment — called convalescent plasma therapy — is popular because no drug has been approved specifically to treat coronavirus infection. A week after 20,000 COVID-19 patients deemed at risk for progressing to a severe or life-threatening condition received plasma therapy, their risk of death dropped to 9%, compared to 12% in a previous study, Mayo Clinic researchers reported. Fewer than 1% had serious side effects, the researchers added. The study included men and women, and significant numbers of patients who were Black, Hispanic or Asian. “We’re optimistic, but must remain objective as we assess increasing amounts of data,” principal investigator Dr. Michael Joyner, a vice chairman for research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said in a clinic news release. The researchers can’t say for sure that the transfusions from recovered patients save lives. Joyner’s team pointed out that the results might be due to patients being less ill, or to better medical care. But because the treatment is being widely used with COVID-19 patients, study continues. Right now, convalescent plasma therapy is the only antibody treatment for COVID-19. Plasma is the liquid part of the blood. It contains both red and white blood cells, as well…  read on >