Today's Globe: Obama on healthcare skeptics, in-hospital cardiac arrest, anit-smoking drug warnings, pharmacy dean, 'recession obesity'

President Obama, pledging to overhaul healthcare this year despite divisions in Congress and the public, took on his skeptics directly yesterday, seeking to assure patients that their costs would not increase and that they would not be victims of a “government takeover.’’

The odds of surviving cardiac arrest after getting CPR in a hospital are slim and have not improved in more than a decade, a large Medicare study concludes.

The Food and Drug Administration will require two smoking-cessation drugs, Chantix and Zyban, to carry the agency’s strongest safety warning over side effects including depression and suicidal thoughts.

The University of Rhode Island has named Ron Jordan, a former president of the nation’s largest pharmacy association, as the next dean of its College of Pharmacy (third item).

“ 'Recession obesity' is the term du jour for the unhealthy side effects of people who lose their jobs and health insurance, then drop their gym memberships, delay medical care, and eat cheaper but less healthy meals," Wendy Everett, president of the New England Healthcare Institute, and Paul S. Grogan, president and CEO of The Boston Foundation, write on the opinion page. "Massachusetts residents are particularly vulnerable to these unhealthy trends. But it doesn’t have to be this way; we can do something about it, and we should start now."