Feature Channels: Drugs and Drug Abuse

• share
• favorite_border

Low-income people with addiction, especially those with addiction to opioids, may find it hard to access the kind of care they need to recover no matter where they live, a new study suggests. But treatment for opioid problems is especially scarce in states that may drop people from their Medicaid health insurance rolls -- unless they can show that they’re working, in school, have a disability or are medically frail or receiving treatment for substance use disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

New research into the biology of depression, along with new and evolving technologies, provides the basis for developing the next generation of treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD), according to the special January/February issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

At a family medicine clinic in the Boston area, a team led by faculty from Tufts University School of Medicine conducted a five-year case study where they found medical facilities can help physicians to treat chronic pain in a way that will deter opioid misuse, while creating better processes to identify and treat patients who develop an opioid use disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

Only a tiny minority of people at risk for an opioid overdose actually are prescribed a drug that could save their lives, a new study suggests. And the odds of having a dose of the rescue drug were very low among some of the most at-risk groups, including those who had already survived a previous opioid overdose.

• share
• favorite_border

Of three possible ways for people to deliver the life-saving antidote naloxone to a person experiencing an opioid overdose, the use of a nasal spray was the quickest and easiest according to research conducted by William Eggleston, clinical assistant professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York, and colleagues at SUNY Upstate Medical University.

• share
• favorite_border

A risk-management program set up in 2012 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to curb improper prescribing of extended-release and long-acting opioids may not have been effective because of shortcomings in the program’s design and execution, according to a paper from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

• share
• favorite_border

Closing of local automotive assembly plants may lead to increases in deaths from opioid overdose, according to a study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts General Hospital. The findings highlight fading economic opportunity as a driving factor in the ongoing national opioid epidemic, and build on previous research that links declining participation in the labor force to increased opioid use in the U.S. The findings are published today in JAMA Internal Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

Leftover prescription opioids pose big risks to kids, yet most parents keep their own and their child's unused painkillers even after they're no longer medically necessary for pain.

• share
• favorite_border

Despite a national opioid crisis, prescribed opioid analgesics remain a viable option for pain management for patients with cancer. In effect, patients with cancer represent one of the few groups excluded from most state legislation and policy initiatives on prescribing opioids as well as from opioid stewardship programs of many health systems. However, little is understood about oncology patients’ opioid self-management practices and potential safety risk that may stem from these practices.

• share
• favorite_border

The number of teens taking and overdosing from benzodiazepines, commonly prescribed anxiety medications, has risen dramatically over the past decade, according to a national study coauthored by Rutgers researchers.

• share
• favorite_border

Older teens may have similar risk factors for prescription opioid overdose as adults, a new study suggests.

• share
• favorite_border

DHS S&T, the White House ONDCP, U.S. CBP, and the USPIS announced the grand prize winner and runner-up in the Opioid Detection Challenge, a $1.55 million global prize competition for rapid, nonintrusive detection tools that will help find illicit opioids in international mail.

• share
• favorite_border

FAU and GSU have partnered on a program to assist children and families affected by addiction. They have received a $2.64 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a program aimed at improving outcomes of Georgia’s children and families and strengthening the partnership between the Division of Family and Children Services and family treatment courts.

• share
• favorite_border

Two researchers from Penn State College of Medicine have received nearly $5 million from the National Institutes of Health to study whether an already-approved drug can be used to reduce cravings and prevent relapse in those struggling with opioid addiction.

• share
• favorite_border

A recently published study shows the United States in the grip of several simultaneously occurring opioid epidemics, rather than just a single crisis. The epidemics came to light after the researchers analyzed county-level data on drug overdose deaths. The study highlights the importance of different policy responses to the epidemics rather than a single set of policies.

• share
• favorite_border

People in treatment for opioid addiction are more likely to relapse when they become more tolerant of risks, according to a study by Rutgers and other institutions. The findings can help clinicians better predict which patients are most vulnerable.

• share
• favorite_border

A computer betting game can help predict the likelihood that someone recovering from opioid addiction will reuse the pain-relieving drugs, a new study shows.

• share
• favorite_border

A study published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment of 799 patients in three locations found that methamphetamine use was associated with more than twice the risk for dropping out of treatment for opioid-use disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

People who abuse cigarettes, alcohol and/or heroin are less likely to drop out of a substance use disorder treatment than those who are addicted to cocaine, according to a new study led by a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The study found that approximately 30 percent of participants in psychosocial substance use disorder treatments do not finish the programs. This is the first time a study of this kind has been published.

• share
• favorite_border

Preventing chronic disease could help curb the opioid epidemic, according to research from the University of Georgia. The study is the first to examine the relationship between hospitalizations due to opioid misuse and chronic disease.

• share
• favorite_border

DARPA-funded project called STOP PAIN aimed at the design of safer, more effective pain treatments Research to focus on understanding the biology of pain as a way to transform clinical care, help stem the public health crisis fueled by opioids Efforts will encompass expertise from fields including neurobiology, stem cell biology, artificial intelligence and computational and medicinal chemistry

• share
• favorite_border

A study published in Neuropsychopharmacology reported that addiction relapse can be prevented by controlling cells in a brain region called the nucleus accumbens.

• share
• favorite_border

DHS S&T in partnership with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the White House ONDCP, and USPIS will announce the winning technologies in the Opioid Detection Challenge at 11:00 a.m., Thursday, December 12, 2019 at the DHS TSL in Egg Harbor Township, NJ.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Illinois at Chicago has received a grant from the Coleman Foundation to develop a screening process for prescribing opioids and managing opioid use disorders in cancer patients who receive care at UI Health, UIC’s clinical health enterprise.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Inhaled cannabis reduces self-reported headache severity by 47.3% and migraine severity by 49.6%, according to a recent study led by Carrie Cuttler, a Washington State University assistant professor of psychology.

• share
• favorite_border

Fentanyl overdoses cluster geographically more than non-fentanyl overdoses, according to a study just released by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

• share
• favorite_border

With no national standard to measure drug treatment facilities, new research reveals opportunities to learn from patients to help create metrics.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have discovered that a peptide links together migraine pain and pain induced by opioid overuse.

• share
• favorite_border

A Tulane University researcher is part of a nationwide initiative to improve treatment of chronic pain and ultimately achieve long-term recovery from opioid addiction. Michael J. Moore, professor of biomedical engineering in the Tulane School of Science and Engineering, is part of a $945 million National Institutes of Health project called the HEAL Initiative, or Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative.

• share
• favorite_border

Older adults in the U.S. who suffer prescription opioid misuse (POM) are at a higher risk for physical and mental quality of life problems as well as other complications, new research conducted in part at Texas State University indicates.

• share
• favorite_border

The research team looked at all research on the effects of cannabis use on illicit opioid use during methadone maintenance therapy, which is a common treatment for opioid use disorder, and found six studies involving more than 3,600 participants.

• share
• favorite_border

Recommendations suggest that opioids are not routinely needed for pain management after most dermatologic procedures, and minimizing their use helps improve patient care and safety

• share
• favorite_border

Stigma and safety fears have made daily dose tapering of opioid prescriptions more common. New research from UC Davis Health physicians, however, shows tapering can occur at rates as much as six times higher than recommended, putting patients at risk of withdrawal, uncontrolled pain or mental health crises.

• share
• favorite_border

January 2020 issue of AJPH

• share
• favorite_border

A new study by researchers at the University of Montreal shows close to 172,000 Canadians injected drugs in 2016, up from 130,000 just five years earlier, but support varies.

• share
• favorite_border

The U.S. opioid epidemic is still raging – it’s particularly pronounced in low-income areas and in those where people lack access to health care services, which includes cities in Michigan and across the Rust Belt. But the effectiveness of efforts to provide treatment and recovery options to those who need it most – that is, in locations with the greatest number of deaths from opioid overdose – has been unclear.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine is the first in the nation to establish opioid-free pain management guidelines for the vast majority of procedures performed in all of its clinics.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that in several cities and counties the proportion of high-schoolers who have ever used heroin or misused prescription opioids is much higher than the national average.

• share
• favorite_border

Highlights about University Hospitals 2018 community benefit report.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that in several cities and counties the proportion of high-schoolers who have ever used heroin or misused prescription opioids is much higher than the national average.

• share
• favorite_border

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has awarded $1.7 million to five universities, including Indiana University, for a wide-ranging research project designed to help the agency better understand how to employ its quality management resources when inspecting drug companies' manufacturing operations, thus benefiting consumers.

• share
• favorite_border

Lawmakers across the United States continue to debate the safety of kratom, an opioid-containing plant that has been listed as a "drug of concern" by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Kratom is sold over the counter in specialty stores and online.

• share
• favorite_border

In States Where Recreational Marijuana is Legal, Adults Use More Frequently and Teens Report Increased Problematic Use

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

More than 160 members of the chiropractic, physical therapy and osteopathic professions forged a new spirit of cooperation and understanding during the Interprofessional Collaborative Spine Conference (ICSC), which took place Nov. 8-9 in Pittsburgh, Pa.

• share
• favorite_border

After years of progress, the average life expectancy in the U.S. has been on the decline for three consecutive years. The second annual Bloomberg American Health Summit—taking place November 12 and 13, 2019, in Baltimore, Maryland—will bring together national leaders, policymakers, advocates, and innovators from across the country to share new knowledge and evidence-based practices around five focus areas implicated in reducing U.S. life expectancy: addiction and overdose, adolescent health, environmental challenges, obesity and the food system, and violence.

• share
• favorite_border

New research presented at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting suggests that opioids contribute no measurable benefit to quality of life or depression for patients with osteoarthritis (OA).

• share
• favorite_border

Colleagues at the University of California at Irvine have created a safe opioid prescribing e-learning program that is significantly improving students' knowledge.

• share
• favorite_border

Nearly 20 veterans kill themselves each day in the United States, a statistic that has led the Department of Veterans Affairs to make suicide prevention its highest priority and to recognize the risks from the simultaneous use of opioids and benzodiazepines. To tackle the issue, the VA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to develop protocols for a study that would use existing records to evaluate the best approaches to opioid treatment in veterans taking benzodiazepines.