For Devyn, the pain started out of the blue one night: "All of a sudden ... my hips... they just hurt unimaginably!" Devyn says. "I started crying, and I started shaking."
From that night on, the teenager's life became defined by pain. The slightest pressure, the breeze from a fan or the elastic from her clothes could cause excruciating -- and inexplicable -- pain.
Doctors are just beginning to understand a strange pain syndrome that strikes thousands of teenagers. And the treatment they're offering is even stranger: to help these kids overcome pain, they start by putting them in even more pain.
Read, or listen, to the entire story from Invisibilia and learn how a mindset shift can help patients manage chronic pain.
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The FDA approved the first drug that can relieve depression in hours instead of weeks, and the first truly new kind of depression drug since Prozac hit the market in 1988.
Esketamine (marketed as Spravato) is a chemical cousin of the anesthetic ketamine, and studies show it can help people with major depressive disorder who haven't been helped by other drugs.
"This is potentially a game changer for millions of people," said Dr. Dennis Charney, dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
But taking the drug won't be as easy as picking up a prescription at the pharmacy. Read on to learn who the drug is appropriate for and how people can get it.
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Some children are pretty much unflappable, unfazed by stressors in their surroundings. Other kids, not so much. This second group tend to get easily stressed out by their environment.
Dr. Thomas Boyce, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, has a new book out about these two broad categories of kids, the emotionally hardy "dandelions," and the more sensitive "orchids."
Given supportive, nurturing conditions, orchid children can thrive — especially, Boyce says, if they have the comfort of a regular routine. Read on for Boyce's advice for dealing with sensitive children.
More of this week’s health stories from NPRHow the 2nd-ever patient was cured of HIV
Why aren't more doctors screening for Alzheimer's?
Social media is influencing what kids want to eat (it's not carrots...)
We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us for daily stories at @NPRHealth.
Your Shots editor,
Carmel Wroth |
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