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The researchers, reporting June 13, 2016 in  JAMA Internal Medicine , also found that nearly half of those surveyed reported receiving no information on how to safely store their medications, either to keep them from young children who could accidentally ingest them or from adolescents or other adults looking to get high. Nor were they given information on how to safely dispose of their medications. Fewer than seven percent of people with extra pills reported taking advantage of "take back" programs that enable patients to turn in unused pain medication either to pharmacies , police departments or the Drug Enforcement Administration for disposal. "These painkillers are much riskier than has been understood and the volume of prescribing and use has contributed to an opioid epidemic in this country," says study leader Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, PhD, an assistant scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School. "It's not c...

Compared to their white counterparts within each alcohol drinking pattern (never, moderate, excessive) investigated, black men and women were significantly more likely to get less than 6 hours of sleep, less likely to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep and generally more likely to get 9 or more hours of sleep. Short sleep disparity increased with increasing alcohol consumption between black and white men. Long sleep duration was more common among heavy drinkers, but only in black men and white women. "Behavioral correlates like alcohol drinking patterns and sleep track together in a complex manner and could act in concert to exacerbate health disparities by race and sex," said lead author, Chandra L. Jackson, epidemiologist and research associate at Harvard Catalyst Clinical and Translational Science Center. "Investigating racial disparities could provide insight into the overall alcohol-sleep relationship, susceptibility differences in sleep homeostasis/architecture across g...