The body's heart muscle (for pumping blood), skeletal muscle (for movement and posture), and brown fat (for heat production), each require a lot of energy and make a lot of waste. And that waste needs to be managed.

Emergency visits by children with suicide-related crises increased by 74% between 2016 and 2022, according to a new study from scientists at Northwestern University and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

The study represented more than 5 million emergency department (ED) visits for mental health concerns by U.S. children in the six-year period. About half of suicide-related ED visits — and half of all children’s mental health ED visits — occurred in hospitals with lower pediatric volume (under 10,000 annually). A child experiencing a mental health crisis may arrive at any emergency department, and many are not prepared to care for children with acute mental health needs, the study authors said. 

Albert Arias, MD, chief of addiction psychiatry at Carilion Clinic, has received an award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to research how psilocybin, a psychedelic compound being studied for several psychiatric and substance use disorders, can offer a new approach for people with cocaine use disorder.