Feature Channels: Drugs and Drug Abuse

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Study found that some drugs were on the market for over five years with no confirmed clinical benefit.

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Two linked studies led by UCLA Fielding School of Public Health researchers have found strong associations between drug misuse generally and opioid misuse specifically among unemployed Americans, who were found to have a 40% higher likelihood to misuse opioids than those working 35-40 hours per week.

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A new study by Indiana University researchers, published in the journal BMC Public Health, explored people’s beliefs about overdose and naloxone as a step to understanding why some communities are not using the reversal medication.

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A new study by Indiana University researchers explored people’s beliefs about overdose and naloxone as a step to understanding why some communities are not using the reversal medication.

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New research finds people who were using buprenorphine obtained without a prescription were more likely to remain in treatment for opioid-use disorder, underscoring need to expand access to this medication.

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Treating pregnant women with opioid use disorder can help minimize opioid-related brain abnormalities in their newborns. Led by scientists at Cedars-Sinai, this is the first study to report evidence validating the benefits of using medication for opioid use disorder during pregnancy.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Saint Louis University found that less than half of Americans who received treatment for opioid use disorder over a five-year period were offered a potentially lifesaving medication. The numbers were even lower for those with what’s known as polysubstance use disorder — when opioid users also misuse other substances.

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Documents in the archive reveal the many ways opioid litigation defendants sought to increase sales of drugs they knew to be addictive and deadly.

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Study finds that patients of orthopaedic and urologic procedures were more likely to dispose of their extra opioid tablets when they received kits in the mail to do so

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New research from the University of California, Irvine, finds that drug withdrawal-induced anxiety and reinstatement of drug seeking behaviors are controlled by a single pathway in the brain and centered around dopamine cells.

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Despite the ability of any Michigan pharmacy to dispense medication to combat opioid overdose without writing prescriptions, slightly more than half of pharmacies in the state offer the drug in such a way.

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Frank Williams was raised in the church playing the keyboard, but by the age of 13, he was introduced to illegal substances and began selling marijuana by his freshman year of high school. A decade later, Williams was selling heroin and slowly became addicted to the substance through what he called a “shake habit” — which is when the substance seeps into your pores from touching it so much.

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University of Kentucky experts on the front lines of the nation’s opioid and addiction crises will share their work in the field of opioid use disorder research, treatment and prevention this week at the 2022 Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta April 18-22.

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The rate of overdose deaths among U.S. teenagers nearly doubled in 2020, the first year of the COVID pandemic, and rose another 20% in the first half of 2021 compared with the 10 years before the pandemic, even as drug use remained generally stable during the same period.

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Researchers at West Virginia University have found that social networking platforms can serve as a direct-to-consumer marketing tool for drug dealers to sell illicit drugs.

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Here are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Clinical Trials channel on Newswise.

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Findings from a new animal study suggest that cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) might be safe for use with opioid pain relievers. Although more studies are needed, the results suggest that these compounds might be a low-risk way to reduce the dose of opioids needed to relieve pain.

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While it's estimated that 1 in 3 Americans will develop a substance use disorder in their lifetime, experts know little about the long-term outcomes for people with substance use disorder symptoms from adolescence through adulthood.

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Medications for opioid-use disorder (OUD) are associated with lower death rates and improved quality of life for people in recovery.

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Pain experts and patient advocates had expressed concern that these laws may restrict access to opioid treatment for people with chronic pain without substituting effective non-opioid alternatives.

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With overdoses at a record high, there's an urgent need to expand the capacity for primary care providers to treat people with opioid use disorder. Programs in Alabama and North Carolina have developed effective models for training primary care providers to provide life-saving treatment for OUD. Read about it in an Issue Brief from the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE).

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Don't miss these articles in our Staff Picks channel

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Results from a new clinical trial demonstrate that an eight-week mindfulness-based therapy—Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE)—decreased opioid use and misuse while reducing chronic pain symptoms, with effects lasting as long as nine months.

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In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of drug overdose deaths among Black Americans surpassed that of whites for the first time since 1999 — a sharp reversal of the situation a decade earlier, when rates were twice as high for whites as for Blacks.

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New research from scientists at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University supports and builds on the researchers’ previous findings that opioid use in female rats before pregnancy—even if not used during pregnancy itself—could result in a higher likelihood that male offspring will develop type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, conditions that increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

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The Latest Research News in Cardiovascular Health

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In the last 25 years, the United States and Canada have experienced an increasingly devastating opioid crisis that has cost more lives than World War I and II combined, with the cost to the United States alone estimated at $1 trillion.

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PNNL scientists are protecting first responders and others by expanding what’s known about fentanyl, the driver of the opioid epidemic. They’re expanding the library of known fentanyl analogs and predicting new forms that might exist someday.

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In the first study of its kind, researchers from NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Wake Forest University School of Medicine analyzed the trend of rising opioid/stimulant deaths by racial/ethnic groups and by state. Findings indicated that while overdose deaths from opioids and stimulants rose across all racial groups and across the country, opioid/stimulant deaths among Black Americans increased at more than three times the rate as non-Hispanic white people—particularly in eastern states.

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In a first-ever study, researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine examined the unintentional drug overdose mortality in Years of Life Lost among adolescents and young people in the United States. Study findings are published online in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

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Here are some of the latest articles we've posted in the Behavioral Science channel.

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A study is the first to evaluate the utility of online drug use forums as an early indicator of impending novel psychoactive substances (NPS) intoxications with potentially harmful or lethal outcomes before they happen. Results showed that seven of the eight NPS in the study appeared on Reddit discussions prior to their implication in poisonings or intoxications. These forums in the virtual world can help predict changes in exposures associated with new or re-emerging NPS in the real world, with potential to be used in early warning systems.

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The latest research news from the Health Disparities Channel.

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Neighborhoods with more opioid overdoses have higher rates of child welfare investigations and confirmed cases of child maltreatment, a new study in Ohio finds.

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Rapid, accessible and highly accurate detection of addictive substances such as opiates and cocaine is vital to reducing the adverse personal and societal impacts of addiction, something current drug detection systems can take too long to provide. However, on-site, real-time monitoring of abused drugs in a patient’s system could alert clinicians before dangerous levels are reached, and such an approach may not be far away.

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It is not uncommon for people with opioid-related conditions, including opioid dependence and opioid use disorder (OUD), to be regularly hospitalized to treat infections, trauma, or other emergent conditions. Data show that patients with substance use disorders (SUD) are much more likely to self-discharge against medical advice than patients admitted for similar conditions without SUDs. This can lead to poorer health outcomes including worsening illness, readmissions, and death.

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Parkdale Center and American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) further solidified their partnership with upgrades to the AANA Helpline that offers support and assistance for substance use disorder (SUD) to Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) and students enrolled in nurse anesthesia programs.

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The accomplished researcher in addiction and substance use disorders also will serve as the Greg Brown Endowed Chair in Neuroscience and Cell Biology and as a tenured professor in the department of psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

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A study in mice led by UCLA researchers shows that removing chemical messengers in the brain that are involved in both wakefulness and addiction may make withdrawal from opioids easier and help prevent relapse.

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Living in an Oxford House recovery home can protect at-risk populations from COVID-19, according to new research from DePaul University.

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Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System have been awarded a three-year, $447,000 grant to grow their addiction medicine education and training programs for medical students and residents. The grant, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), will fund a new curriculum focused on the diagnosis and care for people with opioid use disorder (OUD), including guidance about medications for addiction treatment (MAT), particularly buprenorphine.

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The Latest Mental Health Research and Feature News in the Mental Health Channel on Newswise