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Major study: Drug overdoses over a 38-year period reveal hidden trends
It's just the current cycle that involves opiates, but methamphetamine, cocaine, and others have caused the trajectory of overdoses to head the same direction
From the study: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6408/eaau1184
- It appears that overdoses are increasing exponentially, no matter the drug itself.
- If the study bears out, it means that even reducing opiates will not slow the trajectory.
- The causes of these trends remain obscure, but near the end of the write-up about the study, a hint might be apparent.
Fentanyl bust
BOSTON, MA - AUGUST 23: Bags of drugs are displayed on a table during a press conference held by the United States Attorney's Office at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston on Aug. 23, 2018 announcing federal or state drug, guns, and counterfeiting charges against 29 individuals following separate investigations targeting allegedly major drug dealers and repeat criminal offenders. (Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)A new study has just been published in Science.Org magazine detailing the progression of addiction in the United States from 1979 to 2016.
Named "Changing dynamics of the drug overdose epidemic in the United States from 1979 through 2016," it records the deaths from 600,000 overdoses during that 38-year period.
The results are more disturbing because one fact emerges: no matter the drug of choice for those who overdosed, or even the demographic backgrounds of those who overdosed, the mortality rate has increased every year since 1979.
Even more alarming: Even if, for example, the current opioid crises begins to be dealt with, the trajectory is such that deaths from that same drug would not lessen.
Indeed, more than 70,000 died from overdoses in 2017, and nearly 70% of those are were from heroin, opioids, and fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
BOSTON, MA - MAY 24: A pill of Buprenorphine, better known as Suboxone. The opioid is used to treat substance use disorders. Extensive research has shown opioid-addicted people who properly prescribed buprenorphine or methadone are much less likely to relapse and overdose than people who try to recovered without medication. However, it is still an opioid that creates physical dependence. (Photo by Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)From the abstract:
"Better understanding of the dynamics of the current U.S. overdose epidemic may aid in the development of more effective prevention and control strategies. We analyzed records of 599,255 deaths from 1979 through 2016 from the National Vital Statistics System in which accidental drug poisoning was identified as the main cause of death. By examining all available data on accidental poisoning deaths back to 1979 and showing that the overall 38-year curve is exponential, we provide evidence that the current wave of opioid overdose deaths (due to prescription opioids, heroin, and fentanyl) may just be the latest manifestation of a more fundamental longer-term process. The 38+ year smooth exponential curve of total U.S. annual accidental drug poisoning deaths is a composite of multiple distinctive subepidemics of different drugs (primarily prescription opioids, heroin, methadone, synthetic opioids, cocaine, and methamphetamine), each with its own specific demographic and geographic characteristics."
Despair and loss?
Near the end of the study, one of the key items that stands out is that "Sociological and psychological 'pull' forces may be operative to accelerate demand, such as despair, loss of purpose, and dissolution of communities."
In other words, the loss of good jobs with benefits, as well as neighborhoods where people felt like they lived among an actual community, are impacting overdoses and addiction.
From Your Site Articles
- Relapse prevention during COVID-19 pandemic: staying sober - Big Think ›
- Relapse prevention during COVID-19 pandemic: staying sober - Big Think ›
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LIVE ON MONDAY | "Lights, camera, activism!" with Judith Light
Join multiple Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress Judith Light live on Big Think at 2 pm ET on Monday.
11 July, 2020
Big Think LIVE
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<p>
In this Big Think Live session, multiple Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress Judith Light (
<em>Transparent, Ugly Betty)</em> and host, writer, and actor Winsome Brown will discuss the art of acting, the challenge of choosing the right roles, and why any career is made better by asking "How can I be of service?" instead of "How do I get more...?" From her work fighting for equality and dignity at the height of the AIDS epidemic (and long after) to advancing acceptance of the LGBTQ community through screen and stage, Light will share insight from her incredible career that can help you fine-tune your own goals toward a greater good.
</p><p>
Ask your questions for Judith Light during the live Q&A!
</p><p>
<strong>Join the stream 2 pm ET on Monday, July 13.</strong></p><p><strong>STREAMING LINKS:</strong></p><p>
<strong><a href="https://edge.bigthink.com/live_streams/100">Big Think Edge</a> | <a href="https://youtu.be/KY69l1pik9Y">YouTube</a> | </strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/BigThinkdotcom/posts/10157497938128527"><strong>Facebook</strong></a>
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Scientists see 'rarest event ever recorded' in search for dark matter
The team caught a glimpse of a process that takes 18,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years.
24 April, 2019
Image source: Pixabay
Surprising Science
- In Italy, a team of scientists is using a highly sophisticated detector to hunt for dark matter.
- The team observed an ultra-rare particle interaction that reveals the half-life of a xenon-124 atom to be 18 sextillion years.
- The half-life of a process is how long it takes for half of the radioactive nuclei present in a sample to decay.
</li></ul>
<p>Scientists have observed an extremely rare particle physics event using a detector that's hunting for dark matter, the mysterious material that physicists have yet to observe.</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1124-4" target="_blank">paper published in </a><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1124-4" target="_blank">the journal <em>Nature</em></a>, researchers with the XENON Collaboration said they'd observed the radioactive decay of a substance called xenon-124, an isotope of the element xenon — a colorless and odorless noble gas found in tiny amounts in the atmosphere. The event — a "two-neutrino double electron capture" — has eluded scientists for decades. </p><p>It happens when "two protons in a nucleus are simultaneously converted into neutrons by the absorption of two electrons from one of the atomic shells and the emission of two electron neutrinos." After this occurs, the event shoots out a predictable cascade of X-rays and Auger electrons that scientists look for using an ultra-sensitive detector, buried about 5,000 feet beneath Italy's Gran Sasso mountain where it's shielded from cosmic rays.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"We have shown that we can observe the rarest events ever recorded," Ethan Brown, a professor of physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and co-author of the study, told <em><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/dark-matter-hunters-observe-rarest-event-ever-recorded-1404823" target="_blank">Newsweek</a></em>. "The key finding is that an isotope formerly thought to be completely stable has now been shown to decay on an unimaginably long timescale."</p><p>How long is that timescale? The team estimated that xenon-124's half-life is about 18 sextillion years — or 18,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years — which is than one trillion times the age of our universe, according to the team. It's the slowest process ever measured directly, the team wrote in a statement. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"It's an amazing to have witnessed this process, and it says that our detector can measure the rarest thing ever recorded," Brown told <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/dark-matter-rarest-ever-event-xenon-half-life-radioactive-discovery-breakthrough-latest-science-a8884896.html" target="_blank"><em>The Independent.</em></a></p>
<div id="31261" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="F55APY1568274781"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1121097717781028864" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We are extremely excited to share with you that we have observed the rarest decay process ever measured! It is the… https://t.co/7ILxlSMGUf</div> — XENON1T (@XENON1T)<a href="https://twitter.com/Xenon1T/statuses/1121097717781028864">1556125499.0</a></blockquote></div><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"We designed the XENON1T experiment to look for dark matter, a new kind of matter that makes up 85 percent of the mass of the universe, but interacts so rarely that it's never been observed," Brown said. "This experiment is so sensitive to very rare events that we can make all kinds of other rare physics measurements. One of those is this decay of xenon-124. Although our primary goal was always the discovery of dark matter, we knew there was a good chance we could see this rare decay, so we set out to do so."</p><p>To get that good chance, the team had to expose their detector to a huge amount of xenon atoms by stocking it with 3.2 tons worth of liquid xenon.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"XENON1T is a giant vat of liquid xenon surrounded by light sensors," Brown said. "When dark matter collides in the xenon, or when a radioactive decay occurs inside, we get a tiny flash of light and a little bunch of charge out of the xenon. We measure these with the light sensors and reconstruct everything we can about the original event that caused the light and charge."</p><p>Although the team didn't observe dark matter — which is the primary purpose of the detector — the recent observations could help scientists learn more about neutrinos, one of the least understood fundamental particles in the universe.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"It proves that this XENON detector technology we use for dark matter is much more versatile," graduate student Christian Wittweg, Ph.D student at the University of Münster in Germany, told <em><a href="https://gizmodo.com/dark-matter-detector-makes-incredible-neutrino-observat-1834270148" target="_blank">Gizmodo</a></em>. "We get all these cool analyses... for free after having built an experiment sensitive enough to hunt for dark matter."</p><p>The team plans to use its newer XENONnT detector to continue hunting for dark matter, the elusive material that's estimated to comprise about <a href="https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/scientists-figure-out-how-to-trap-dark-matter" target="_blank">26.8 percent of all the content in the universe</a>.</p>
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Space travel could create language unintelligible to people on Earth
A new study looks at what would happen to human language on a long journey to other star systems.
12 July, 2020
Cylindrical space colony.
Credit: NASA Ames Research Center.
Surprising Science
- A new study proposes that language could change dramatically on long space voyages.
- Spacefaring people might lose the ability to understand the people of Earth.
- This scenario is of particular concern for potential "generation ships".
<p>Given the mounting crises of 2020, wouldn't it be nice to just get on a giant spaceship and leave this troubled planet behind? While we don't yet have a surefire candidate for the new Earth, and our tech is still probably decades if not centuries behind, proposals and achievements in interstellar travel are stacking up. A new study makes the fascinating case that if a group of humans was to venture out on a space journey that lasted generations, their language would likely change. It could evolve into something the people of the original Earth would not understand.</p><p>Let's say, a contingent of people boards a so-called "<a href="https://www.universetoday.com/144894/what-is-a-generation-ship/" target="_blank">generation ship</a>," a fully-stocked world-onto-itself spaceship that can sustain generations of humans in space, slowly traversing the heavens towards another possibly inhabitable planet like <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1629/" target="_blank">Proxima b</a> in the Proxima Centauri star system. We cannot yet build such a ship, which might have to fly for thousands of years, unless we invent some type of warp-drive or use antimatter, as has been imagined in science fiction, but there have been some initial <a href="https://www.universetoday.com/144894/what-is-a-generation-ship/" target="_blank">studies</a> on the subject. </p>
<p>Such a journey could be subject to a variety of dangers and unforeseen circumstances like viruses, asteroids, computer malfunctions, you name it. New research, carried out by linguistics professors <span style="background-color: initial;"><strong>Andrew McKenzie</strong> from the University of Kansas and <strong>Jeffrey Punske </strong>of Southern Illinois University</span>, shows what might also happen is that the language of the travelers would mutate. The study highlights the fact that when communities become isolated from each other, conditions are ripe for language to transform. Over time, the spacefaring colonizers would not be able to able to understand their original language.</p><p>In the study, the linguists use examples of effects from long-distance voyages on Earth, like the changing languages of Polynesian island explorers, to show how much language can change, even within one's lifetime.</p><p>Professor McKenzie described a likely (and somewhat sad) scenario in a <a href="http://news.ku.edu/2020/06/30/without-care-lost-space-could-mean-lost-translation" target="_blank">press release</a>:</p>
<blockquote>"If you're on this vessel for 10 generations, new concepts will emerge, new social issues will come up, and people will create ways of talking about them," McKenzie explained, "and these will become the vocabulary particular to the ship. People on Earth might never know about these words, unless there's a reason to tell them. And the further away you get, the less you're going to talk to people back home. Generations pass, and there's no one really back home to talk to. And there's not much you want to tell them, because they'll only find out years later, and then you'll hear back from them years after that."</blockquote>
Generation Ships
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a1e6445c7168d293a6da3f9600f534a2"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H2f0Wd3zNj0?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>What might also happen is that the language of people on Earth would change. So it's possible, given the distance, and the dwindling reasons to communicate, that both parties might simply not be able to speak each other as time passes.</p><p>One way to prevent this issue – have a member of the crew trained in linguistics or make other accommodations to remember the language of Earth. Thinking even further ahead, the professors propose that each new ship of people coming over to a faraway space colony would essentially contain "linguistic immigrants" and an effort would have to be made to train them in the changed language to help them avoid discrimination.</p><p>In case you're deadset on going to Proxima b, <a href="https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1806/1806.03856.pdf" target="_blank">recent research</a> found that using currently-imaginable-tech such a trip would take <strong>6300</strong> years and would need to start out with a crew of at least <strong>98</strong> people.</p><p>Check out the study, "<a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3747353" target="_blank">Language Development During Interstellar Travel</a>" in Acta Futura, the journal of the European Space Agency's <a href="https://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/index.html" target="_blank">Advanced Concepts Team</a>.</p>
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Your emotions are the new hot commodity — and there’s an app for that
Many of the most popular apps are about self-improvement.
12 July, 2020
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Personal Growth
Emotions are the newest hot commodity, and we can't get enough.
<p>Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we've come to rely even more on our digital devices, including to help manage our emotions. </p><p>There are approximately 2.57 million apps available for Android users to download and approximately <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/276623/number-of-apps-available-in-leading-app-stores/" target="_blank">1.84 million apps available for Apple users</a>. Apps are those tools on our phones or tablets which help us monitor, record and regulate some of the most intimate aspects of our lives, from sleep and menstrual cycles, to food intake and finances. </p><p>Many of the most popular apps in the West include the goal of self-improvement, which seems to be a constant drive for many. </p><p>The investment of our time and money into apps that help us become better performers, managers and producers is one of the consequences of neoliberalism, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoliberalism" target="_blank">the idea that humans can make progress in their lives through market competition and economic growth</a>.</p><p>Neoliberalism empasizes <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/neoliberalism.asp" target="_blank">individualism, economic efficiency, low to no government interference</a> and generally ignores systemic issues.</p><p>Under neoliberalism, a person is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038960" target="_blank">an enterprise</a> whose personality traits and skills are considered valuable assets that need continuous <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038960" target="_blank">management, improvement and investment</a>.</p><p>Apps can help with the business of us: we can easily track and monitor our bodies with <a href="https://sworkit.com/" target="_blank">workout classes</a>, <a href="https://www.myfitnesspal.com/" target="_blank">diets</a> and <a href="https://www.duolingo.com/" target="_blank">skill-building exercises</a>. As we track our progress in apps, we can literally visualize our bodies and capabilities improve. </p><p>Emotions, however, are trickier. We haven't had the same kind of metric tools and assessment criteria to track our minds to the same degree we can track our bodies <a href="https://lifesum.com/" target="_blank">caloric intake</a> or <a href="https://www.fitbit.com/en-ca/home" target="_blank">waist circumference</a>. </p><p>Enter mood tracking apps. </p><p>The simultaneous production and consumption of emotion, or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1469540509354673" target="_blank">emotional prosumption</a> manufactures emotion for consumer consumption. </p>
<h2>The pursuit of happiness</h2><p>Mood tracking apps are sophisticated tools which promise the ability to track, measure and improve our emotions. Positive emotions, like happiness, are encouraged through visual features like "<a href="https://daylio.webflow.io/" target="_blank">best day streaks</a>."</p><p>Negative emotions like sadness or anger are dissected with aims <a href="https://happify.com/" target="_blank">to avoid or erase their existence</a>.</p><p>In this new emotional frontier, happiness is the bar against which we measure all other emotions. The very existence of mood tracking apps is a testament to this.</p><p>The potential to improve our emotional traits and skills through apps appears limitless. While there is nothing wrong with pursuing a more fulfilling emotional life, there is a danger in being blinded by the quest for happiness. Since mood tracking apps are designed to direct us solely toward happiness, will we be prevented from understanding and engaging with the true complexity of our emotions?</p>
<h2>Data dangers</h2><p>By reducing our experiences, bodies and emotions to numbers, or quantified data, we make them ripe for consumption by app developers and interested third parties.</p><p>As a critical health researcher and a digital health literacy researcher, we are both concerned with how unsuspecting users may be taken advantage of within this frontier of continual self-improvement, especially if their personal data falls into the wrong hands and manipulated against them.</p><p>When it comes to commerce, emotions are powerful. They have the ability to move us towards action, change our minds and foster new relationships. They are also fast and reactive. Making decisions becomes more challenging when choices are everywhere and need to be made at lightning speed.</p><p>Modern advertising, by design, targets this impulsivity by hooking us on products and content through emotion.</p><p>In his book, <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2505-psychopolitics" target="_blank"><em>Psychopolitics, Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power</em>,</a> cultural theorist Byung- Chul Han discusses how this shift signals a creation of emotional consumption. We no longer buy a phone because it's a good phone, but rather because the ad displays happy people surrounded by friends using that phone.</p><p>We are drawn to ads and marketing campaigns because <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/emotions-in-advertising-examples" target="_blank">of the way they make us feel</a> rather than the service they provide.</p><p>In a similar vein, social media platforms like Instagram, Tinder and Facebook hook us by "selling" us "likes," matches and affirmation through numbers. Since likes and swipes take less than a second to perform, they target and rely on the reactive nature of emotion.</p>
<h2>The consumption of emotions</h2><p>Emotions then become a new commodity that we knowingly or unknowingly produce and are for sale to the highest bidder. This is known as emotional prosumption.</p><p>Emotional prosumption produces two consequences. First, due to the reactivity of emotions, our decision making can be swayed when the information we consume is emotionally charged.</p><p>As such, in 2016, the emotions of voters in the United States were taken advantage of and manipulated through <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-russia-linked-groups-used-facebook-to-meddle-in-2016-election/" target="_blank">specifically targeted ad campaigns</a>. Specifically, emotionally charged ads pertaining to <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/russian-facebook-ads-targeted-us-voters-before-2016-election/" target="_blank">immigration, gun laws and other political issues</a> were deliberate targeted at the U.S. electorate just days before the election.</p><p>Our emotional data can be sold to third parties without our permission. Likes, swipes and mood tracking logs can all be classified as emotional data and provide companies with information on how to promote products to us in ways that trigger the highest emotional response.</p><p>These abilities raise questions not only for data privacy, but also for advertising ethics.</p><p>The unregulated creation and consumption of emotional data is therefore problematic for two reasons: It places emphasis on "positive" emotions rather than a healthy spectrum, and it takes information about immaterial consumption without user knowledge.</p><p>The ethical implications of emotional prosumption may leave a lasting impact on how we advertise, how and what we consume, and what aspects of ourselves we are willing to alter in the never ending quest of personal optimization.</p><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/anna-rudkovska-959435" target="_blank">Anna Rudkovska</a>, PhD Candidate, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/western-university-882" target="_blank">Western University</a></em> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/danica-facca-959434" target="_blank">Danica Facca</a>, PhD student, Health Information Science, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/western-university-882" target="_blank">Western University</a></em></p><p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com/" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/your-emotions-are-the-new-hot-commodity-and-theres-an-app-for-that-131629" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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Study details the negative environmental impact of online shopping
Frequent shopping for single items adds to our carbon footprint.
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