Feature Channels: Addiction

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Increased scrutiny of opioid prescribing for patients with chronic pain has led providers and healthcare organizations to consider opioid-dose reductions, known as tapering. Such actions can precipitate communication challenges for primary-care physicians. A new study, published in The Journal of Pain, examined patient-doctor conversations and explored best practices associated with opioid tapering. The Journal of Pain is the peer-review publication of the American Pain Society, www.americanpainsociety.org.

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This fall, UCI's Emiliana Borrelli was awarded the title of Knight in the Order of the “Légion d’Honneur,” the most prestigious civilian honor given by the French government, received the prestigious Golgi Medal Award in Neuroscience from the Golgi Foundation at a ceremony in Brescia, Italy.

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When a targetable genetic alteration is present, matching the alteration with the appropriate targeted therapy is associated with a survival benefit of 1.5 years, regardless of smoking history.

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Researchers are assessing clinical and genetic characteristics of a large patient cohort suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain and receiving prescription opioids. With this information, the multidisciplinary team will derive a clinical and genetic profile of prescription opioid-use disorder and use this knowledge to develop an “addiction risk score.” Findings from this study will be key in identifying those who are at low-risk from those who are at high-risk of prescription opioid-use disorder.

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Mayo Clinic has expanded its commercial content offerings to include expert, research-based wellness content and a personalized, actionable wellness assessment.

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A study published in Pediatrics examined interdisciplinary provider perspectives on legal medical marijuana use in children with cancer. It found that 92 percent of providers were willing to help children with cancer access medical marijuana. However, providers who are legally eligible to certify for medical marijuana were less open to endorsing its use. While nearly a third of providers received one or more requests for medical marijuana, the lack of standards on formulations, dosing and potency was identified as the greatest barrier to recommending it. These findings reflect survey responses from 288 providers in Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington.

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Young adults who use electronic cigarettes are more than four times as likely to begin smoking tobacco cigarettes within 18 months as their peers who do not vape, according to new University of Pittsburgh research. The findings demonstrate that e-cigarettes are serving as a gateway to traditional smoking, contrary to their purported value as a smoking cessation tool. The study is the first nationally representative survey that followed for more than a year people 18 to 30 years old who were initially nonsmokers.

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Remember when your mom always told you “what you do now will catch up with you when you’re older?” She wasn’t lying. Lung cancer is a disease that mostly affects the elderly, with 83 percent of those living with cancer being 60-years-of-age or older, but reducing your risk of getting lung cancer starts when you’re young.

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Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, Director of The Friedman Brain Institute, and Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, has been awarded two prestigious honors for his research and leadership in the fields of science and education: the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) Paul Hoch Distinguished Service Award and the Wilbur Cross Medal from the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

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Some surgeons might be able to prescribe a third of opioid painkiller pills that they currently give patients, and not affect their level of post-surgery pain control, a new study suggests. That would mean far fewer opioids left over to feed the ongoing national crisis of misuse, addiction and overdose.

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A single dose of lithium chloride, a drug used to treat bipolar disease and aggression, blocks the sleep disturbances, memory loss, and learning problems tied to fetal alcohol syndrome, new experiments in mice show.

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A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that under 5 percent of those referred for opioid treatment from the criminal justice system were directed to medication-assisted programs to treat their disorder.

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New study finds that death rates for those hospitalized for opioid-related conditions in the U.S. have quadrupled since 2000. Worst toll seen among patients who were low-income, white, under age 65 and on Medicare, and the severity of opioid misuse leading to hospitalization has increased.

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It's a familiar sight in the majority of young families: young children bent over a screen for hours, texting or gaming, lost in a digital world.

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Cannabis use in youth is linked to bipolar symptoms in young adults, finds new research by the University of Warwick.

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New study results suggest that a more vigilant prescribing guideline for surgeons could reduce by as much as 40 percent the number of opioid pills prescribed after operations, and still meet patients’ pain management needs.

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A cross-section of opioid prescribers that typically do not prescribe large volumes of opioids, including primary care physicians, surgeons and non-physician health care providers, frequently prescribe opioids to high-risk patients, according to a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Perspective of moral psychology helps inform why tobacco control debates are often so vitriolic and yet so often based on limited science, Lynn Kozlowski writes in new paper.

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Early adolescence is a high-risk period for alcohol experimentation and initiation. Adolescent drinking is linked to exposure to alcohol use in the media. This study examined the influence that movie portrayals of drinking may have on the onset of drinking among 6th, 7th and 8th graders, and the impact that viewing the movie with a friend or parent might have. Researchers also examined movie influence across a spectrum of early-drinking milestones: sipping alcohol (but not consuming a full drink), consuming a full drink of alcohol, and engaging in heavy episodic drinking.

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A multi-disciplinary team of researchers with expertise in biology, anesthesiology, pharmacology, and medicinal chemistry at U of U Health received a $10 million grant from the Department of Defense to identify new, natural compounds to develop non-opioid drugs for pain management