"Health & Medical News"

Washington — Federal regulators have proposed sweeping patient safety rules to give physicians and others a confidential, voluntary way to report medical errors and near mistakes. Several health care organizations applauded the release of the long-awaited regulations but want a closer look before making a final judgment.

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Researchers may be underestimating alcohol consumption in the U.K. by failing to account for larger wine glasses in bars and increasingly stronger beers and ciders on the market, Medical News Today reported Dec. 13.

The U.K.’s Office of National Statistics has announced that it will updates its methods for calculating alcohol consumption, saying that past research may be underestimating alcohol use by 30 percent. In some cases, people may not be drinking a greater volume of alcoholic beverages, the drinks they are consuming are stronger. And in the case of wine, some pubs and bars have replaced the standard 125ml wine glass with larger goblets.

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The annual Monitoring the Future survey finds declining use of cigarettes and illicit drugs among 8th-graders that signifies “an ongoing cultural shift among teens and their attitudes about smoking and substance abuse,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

NIDA said that the 2007 survey found considerable declines in lifetime, past-month, and daily smoking among 8th-graders. Daily smoking rates fell to 3 percent, down from a peak of 10.4 percent in 1996.

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Young adults who have recently battled depression are at increased risk of starting to smoke cigarettes or initiating alcohol and other drug use, according to a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

SAMHSA, drawing on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, said that youths ages 18 to 25 who reported a major depressive episode in the past year were 60 percent more likely than their peers to have started smoking, 35 percent more likely to have started drinking, twice as likely to have begun misusing prescription pain medication, and twice as likely to have started using illicit drugs.

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