https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from RAND Corporation The end of pandemic-era enrollment enhancements for Medicaid was associated with a rise in the number of people ending medication treatment for opioid use disorder, as well as a decrease in the number of people beginning such treatment, according to a new RAND study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-medicaid-unwinding-medication-treatment-opioid.html Addiction Mon, 29 Sep 2025 16:36:04 EDT news678382562 Sales of the overdose reversal medication naloxone increased after it was made available to the public without a prescription but then dipped quickly in the period following the debut of over-the-counter sales, according to a new RAND study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-counter-sales-overdose-reversal-drug.html Addiction Mon, 15 Sep 2025 11:00:01 EDT news676892221 Three widely used artificial intelligence chatbots generally do a good job responding to very-high-risk and very-low-risk questions about suicide, but they are inconsistent in answering questions about suicide that may pose intermediate risks, according to a new study appearing in Psychiatric Services. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-ai-chatbots-inconsistent-suicide.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:01 EDT news675330001 Nearly 12% of Americans have used GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, including about one-fifth of women aged 50 to 64, according to a new RAND report. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-americans-glp-weight-loss-drugs.html Overweight & Obesity Wed, 06 Aug 2025 12:45:03 EDT news673703101 Nearly one-third of the nation's K-12 U.S. public schools mandate mental health screening for students, with most offering in-person treatment or referral to a community mental health professional if a student is identified as having depression or anxiety, according to a new study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-07-schools-screen-students-mental-health.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 18 Jul 2025 11:00:02 EDT news671959430 According to the first-ever survey fielded by RAND's new American Youth Panel (AYP), 49% of students in middle and high school grades reported losing interest in math about half or more of the time, and 75% of youths reported losing interest for at least some class time. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-disconnected-math-students-real-world.html Mathematics Tue, 17 Jun 2025 05:21:03 EDT news669356461 More Americans use illicit opioids such as fentanyl than previously estimated, highlighting the need for better methods to understand the depths of the opioid crisis, according to a new study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-americans-illicit-opioids-higher-previously.html Medications Fri, 09 May 2025 11:00:07 EDT news665999642 According to a new RAND survey, over 80% of public school-based pre-kindergarten (pre-K) teachers use multiple curriculum materials. Some combine materials that focus on a particular domain—such as literacy or numeracy—while others use material that covers many domains at once, and some use both. More than two-thirds reported using materials that they created themselves, often in conjunction with commercial curriculums. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-survey-reveals-varied-curriculum-constraints.html Education Wed, 09 Apr 2025 15:02:23 EDT news663429740 Specialized hospital services that aid people with opioid use disorder, regardless of why they are admitted, can boost the number of patients who begin treatment with FDA-approved medication for opioid use disorder and increase the likelihood they remain engaged in that care once discharged, according to a new study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-hospital-addiction-sustains-treatment-usual.html Addiction Mon, 07 Apr 2025 11:00:07 EDT news663236521 The viability of hospital-based emergency care in the U.S. is at risk, threatened by issues such as patients with increasingly complex needs and falling payments for physicians, according to a new RAND report. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-viability-hospital-based-emergency-peril.html Medical economics Mon, 07 Apr 2025 08:06:05 EDT news663231962 Building multifamily housing in California is more than twice as expensive as it is in Texas, with much of the difference driven by state and local policies that contribute to long permitting and construction timelines, and higher local development fees, according to a new RAND report based on cost information from more than 100 completed apartment projects. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-multifamily-housing-california-high-texas.html Economics & Business Wed, 02 Apr 2025 06:28:07 EDT news662794081 Two artificial intelligence platforms are nearly on par with—or sometimes surpass—mental health professionals in evaluating appropriate responses to people who exhibit suicidal thoughts, according to a new RAND study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-ai-skilled-responses-suicidal-thoughts.html Biomedical technology Wed, 12 Mar 2025 14:24:04 EDT news661008241 Mothers who were given access to virtual breastfeeding support (or telelactation) through a free app tended to report more breastfeeding than peers who did not receive such help, with a more-pronounced effect observed among Black mothers, according to a new RAND study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-02-virtual-breastfeeding-mothers.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Thu, 27 Feb 2025 11:00:01 EST news659780881 A three-year effort to encourage California prosecutors to reconsider the sentences given to some people in state prison has resulted in a modest number of people being resentenced, but improvements are needed to speed review of more cases, according to a new RAND report. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-california-prison-resentencing-yields-modest.html Political science Wed, 19 Feb 2025 13:01:38 EST news659192492 The launch of the nation's 988 mental health hotline did not coincide with significant and equitable growth in the availability of most crisis services, except for a small increase in peer support services, according to a new RAND study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-crisis-hotline-limited-growth-mental.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 29 Jan 2025 11:00:02 EST news657305297 The typical cost of developing new medications may not be as high as generally believed, with a few ultra-costly medications skewing public discussions about the cost of pharmaceutical research and development, according to a new RAND study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-01-high-outliers-distort-discussions-drug.html Medications Tue, 07 Jan 2025 16:58:04 EST news655491481 In five states over nearly a decade, hospitals have increased how frequently they document patients as needing the highest intensity care, which has led to hospitals receiving billions in extra payments from health plans and government programs, according to a new RAND study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-reveals-upcoding-hospital-stays-billions.html Medical economics Tue, 03 Dec 2024 17:11:05 EST news652468262 The risk of developing dementia later in life is strongly predicted by a person's cognitive ability, functional limitations and physical health as many as 20 years before onset of the illness, according to a new RAND report. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-early-cognitive-impairment-spurs-people.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Tue, 03 Dec 2024 09:46:19 EST news652441570 Larger pay increases and better benefits could help keep K-12 teachers in the teacher workforce, finds a new, nationally representative RAND survey. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-larger-pay-benefits-teacher-retention.html Education Wed, 20 Nov 2024 14:31:03 EST news651335461 Treating people in low-income countries for major depressive disorder can also help improve their physical health and household members' well-being, demonstrating that mental health treatments can be cost effective, according to a new RAND study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-10-depression-income-nations-health.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 30 Oct 2024 19:30:01 EDT news649504087 More than 14 million Americans now provide daily care to wounded, ill or injured military servicemembers or veterans, with the burden falling heaviest on the 26% who assist people aged 60 and under, according to a new RAND report commissioned by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-million-americans-caregivers-military-members.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 24 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news646387381 Psilocybin mushrooms are the psychedelic substance most often used in the U.S., with its popularity outpacing other psychedelic drugs such as MDMA (known as ecstasy), according to a new RAND report. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-magic-mushrooms-psychedelic-drug.html Addiction Thu, 27 Jun 2024 00:00:01 EDT news638639436 Abortion care providers in North Carolina report spending more time on administrative tasks, voice frustration with new required consent forms, have feelings of anxiety and burnout, and fear for the future pipeline of providers since the state adopted regulations in 2023 limiting abortion care, according to a new RAND report. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-north-carolina-abortion-law-administrative.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Fri, 21 Jun 2024 12:51:04 EDT news638193061 Only a third of outpatient community mental health treatment facilities in 20 states with the highest opioid related overdose deaths report offering medication treatment for opioid use disorders, suggesting efforts may be needed to strengthen such services, according to a new RAND study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-medication-treatment-opioid-disorder-outpatient.html Medications Tue, 18 Jun 2024 11:00:01 EDT news637918861 With more working hours and lower average base pay, the well-being of U.S. teachers continues to be worse than that of similar working adults—a consistent pattern since 2021, according to a new RAND survey. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-teachers-worse-pay-similar-population.html Economics & Business Tue, 18 Jun 2024 00:10:01 EDT news637854721 Over the 20 years that same-sex couples have been able to marry in the U.S., there have been no negative effects on marriage, divorce or cohabitation among different-sex couples, according to a new report from RAND and UCLA. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-sex-marriage-couples.html Social Sciences Mon, 13 May 2024 14:54:03 EDT news634830841 Prices paid to hospitals during 2022 by employers and private insurers for both inpatient and outpatient services averaged 254% of what Medicare would have paid, with wide variation in prices among states, according to a new RAND report. The report, "Prices Paid to Hospitals by Private Health Plans: Findings from Round 5 of an Employer-Led Transparency Initiative," is authored by Christopher Whaley, Rose Kerber, Daniel Wang and Aaron Kofner. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-private-health-paid-hospitals-medicare.html Medical economics Mon, 13 May 2024 12:32:03 EDT news634822321 Interviews with military veterans who expressed support for extremist groups or related beliefs on a prior survey show that many experienced a significant negative event during their military service, according to a new RAND report titled "Veteran Narratives of Support for Extremist Groups and Beliefs: Results from Interviews with Members of a Nationally Representative Survey of the U.S. Veteran Community." https://phys.org/news/2024-04-military-veterans-extremism-negative.html Social Sciences Tue, 09 Apr 2024 12:47:03 EDT news631885621 Getting the 988 and 911 emergency telephone systems to work in concert requires detailed planning and close cooperation, and such efforts may benefit from having one or two people at the local level who act as champions for interoperability, according to a new RAND report titled "The Road to 988/911 Interoperability: Three Case Studies on Call Transfer, Colocation, and Community Response." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-special-efforts-concert.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 20 Mar 2024 13:42:34 EDT news630160949 More than 40% of Americans know someone who has died of a drug overdose and about one-third of those individuals say their lives were disrupted by the death, according to a new RAND study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-americans-died-drug-overdose.html Addiction Wed, 21 Feb 2024 16:00:01 EST news627728644