De facto decriminalization of drug possession may be a good first step in addressing the disproportionate impact of an overburdened United States criminal justice system on the Black community.
Men were significantly more vulnerable than women to overdose deaths involving opioid and stimulant drugs in 2020-2021, according to a new study analyzing data from across the United States.
A new clinical trial run by Howard University, the University of Illinois Chicago and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine will partner with community organizations and sites to bring life-saving care closer to a highly vulnerable population – Black people with opioid use disorder.
For decades, efforts by police to seize illicit drugs have been a cornerstone strategy for disrupting drug markets and removing drugs from communities. But there’s an unintended outcome when opioids are seized, a new study finds — increases in overdoses, including those that are fatal.
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is hosting an expert briefing for the media from 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT, Thursday, June 15, on the recent Purdue Pharma ruling that shields the Sackler family from current and future civil lawsuits in exchange for contributing up to $6 billion to states and communities to fight the opioid epidemic.
A new intervention developed by a team of researchers and led by Guillermo “Willy” Prado, professor of nursing and health studies at the University of Miami, aims to curb devastating mental health trends and drug use among Hispanic youth who identify as sexual minorities.
Despite getting “the munchies”, people who frequently use cannabis are leaner and less prone to diabetes than those who don’t. University of California, Irvine researchers have now uncovered a possible explanation for this paradox – and it’s not good news.
With an urgent mission to address the alarming rise in drug overdose deaths, the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) has announced plans to open the new Kahlert Institute for Addiction Medicine.
Leveraging the HEALing Communities Study infrastructure, researchers are testing whether there is an association between fentanyl test strip use and overdose risk reduction behaviors among people who use drugs over a 28-day observation period. The Stay Safe Study will be in Kentucky, Ohio and New York.
Penn Medicine is launching a new community mental health hub at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania — Cedar Avenue (HUP Cedar), co-locating inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care with a new crisis response center (CRC) at the facility. The multi-year plan will put crucial psychiatric and substance use care in easy reach for West and Southwest Philadelphia residents, at a time when both mental illness and drug and alcohol dependence are surging in the city.
A new study of more than 50,000 US adolescents across the country indicates that vaping nicotine is strongly linked with an increased likelihood of high levels use of binge drinking and cannabis usage.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Get your mental health news here.
A new study led by a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researcher found that the percent of patients treated for opioid use disorder with methadone significantly decreased their use of fentanyl during a year of treatment. The percent who tested positive for fentanyl declined on average from 21.8 percent in week one to 17.1 percent in week 52.
Gentrification doesn’t erase drug crime and gun violence. Instead, research from West Virginia University economist Zachary Porreca shows that when one urban block becomes upwardly mobile, organized criminal activity surges outward to surrounding blocks, escalating the violence in the process.
Strategies to treat pain without triggering dangerous side effects such as euphoria and addiction have proven elusive. Now scientists at Washington University School of Medicine have identified a potential pathway to pain relief that neither triggers addiction nor causes hallucinations.
A new study found a declining proportion of DATA-waivered clinicians prescribed any buprenorphine between 2017 and 2021. While the number of waivered clinicians increased significantly during the five-year window, only one out of three prescribed any buprenorphine as of May 2021. Furthermore, the majority of prescriptions were written by clinicians who specialize in treating opioid use disorder. The new study was published as a research letter in JAMA.
At the end of 2022, the federal government eliminated the “X waiver,” a major hurdle to providing addiction treatment, but progress needs to be continued, according to the authors of a new Perspective piece published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Research supports the promise of psychedelics in treating conditions like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, but the future regulatory landscape for these drugs remains unclear. Experts from Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania, American University and Harvard Law School call for creativity and collaboration at the federal and state levels in developing policies for the use and oversight of psychedelics and a commitment to developing a strong evidence base for efficacy and safety.
Treating opioid addiction should be much easier now than it was a few years ago, thanks to pandemic-era rule changes that aim to improve access to buprenorphine, a medicine proven to help in recovery. But a new study shows prescriptions and adherence rates have remained flat.
Researcher will discuss the study which involved a sleeping aid known as suvorexant that is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for insomnia, hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers have identified a strong association between prevalence of prescription stimulant therapy for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and rates of prescription stimulant misuse (taken in a way other than as directed by a clinician) by students in middle and high schools.
U.S. middle and high schools with the most students taking prescription stimulants to treat ADHD also had, overall, the highest percentage of students who misused prescription stimulants within the past year.
New research from Boston Medical Center concluded that offering medications to treat opioid addiction in jails and prisons leads to a decrease in overdose deaths. Published in JAMA Network Open, the study also found that treating opioid addiction during incarceration is cost-effective in terms of healthcare costs, incarceration costs, and deaths avoided.
First study to do apples-to-apples comparison of residential treatment use among Medicaid enrollees across several states
Researchers tested whether using open-label placebo could increase the efficacy of methadone treatment for people undergoing care for opioid use disorder.
University of Kentucky researchers are creating an innovative statewide surveillance system to inform prevention and response efforts aimed at reducing the burden of opioid use disorder in Kentucky. The Rapid Actionable Data for Opioid Response in Kentucky (RADOR-KY) will use data from federal, state, and local sources to guide evidence-based practices aimed at preventing opioid overdoses in the Commonwealth.
A new paper in Rheumatology Advances in Practice, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that Granulomatosis With Polyangiitis, a nasal disease that causes inflammation of the blood vessels and commonly presents with symptoms in sinuses, throat, lungs, and kidneys, may be commonly misdiagnosed.
From septic shock to sticker shock. Keep up with this ever-growing, changing sector. Below are some of the latest stories on healthcare on Newswise.
Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridioides difficile, Candida auris, Drug-resistant Shigella. These bacteria not only have difficult names to pronounce, but they are also difficult to fight off. These bacteria may infect humans and animals, and the infections they cause are harder to treat than those caused by non-resistant bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance is an urgent global public health threat.
Anthony DiStefano, professor of public health at Cal State Fullerton, believes that the sudden social isolation that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic had an influence on mental health and drug overdose deaths.
It's sleep awareness week, according to the National Sleep Foundation. It’s important to understand how sleep deprivation can impact your health. Most people recognize that if they don’t get enough sleep, their mood and memory will suffer the next day.
People living in the United States must travel significantly farther to access methadone treatment for opioid addiction than Canadians, suggests a new study led by Washington State University researchers.
Parents have a new—and deadly—reason to sit down with their tweens and teens for a talk about drug abuse. The reason: fentanyl.
Researchers found opioids were responsible for more than half of all fatal poisonings in children ages 5 and younger, more than double the proportion of fatal poisonings caused by opioids in 2005. Additionally, over-the-counter drugs still contribute to fatal poisonings in this age group despite increased regulation. The findings, published today in the journal Pediatrics, underscore the need for improved intervention to prevent further fatal poisonings.
Below are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Chemistry news channel on Newswise.
Rutgers research shows that it is difficult to dictate physician behavior, but that may be a good thing.
As cocaine use continues to climb across the United States, scientists have struggled to develop an effective pharmacological approach to treat the devastating disorder. But by seamlessly combining artificial intelligence (AI), human intelligence, clinical testing and computer analysis, researchers at Case Western Reserve University have unearthed an existing option that appears to hold promise.
The U.S. methamphetamine mortality rate increased fiftyfold between 1999 and 2021, with most of the added deaths also involving heroin or fentanyl, researchers report in the American Journal of Public Health.
Community awareness is critical to preventing overdoses
Coffee drinkers can take advantage of a new placebo discovery showing decaffeinated coffee quenches withdrawal symptoms in people reliant on their daily caffeine fix.
A new study finds evidence from the DNA methylome that the biological age – different from the chronological age – of cells in Brodmann Area 9 of the prefrontal cortex might be greater in people with cocaine use disorder. This suggests that cocaine abuse makes these cells age faster according to the ‘epigenetic clock’. The authors also find differences in methylation in 20 genes, mainly involved in regulation of the activity of neurons and their connectivity. This post-mortem study is one of the first to directly look at the methylome of brain cells in human donors with cocaine use disorder, rather than in rodents.
Analysis reveals similar changes in the brain’s functioning in both humans and mouse models
More U.S. high school seniors reported vaping cannabis in states where it is legal only for medical purposes than states where all adult use is permitted – a study finding that surprised the researchers.
There has been a 1,107.01 percent increase in the number of people with medical cannabis cards in Florida (2018 to Jan. 27). One key reason is because many people believe cannabinoids – plant derived, medicinal, and synthetic or chemically engineered – are safe to use. A study shows that 386 people died in Florida as a result of cannabis use; of these, 258 cases were caused by synthetic cannabis. Nearly 88 percent were men; 28 percent of deaths were in those ages 45 to 54, compared to 9 percent in those ages 8 to 24. Nearly 99 percent of individuals using cannabis and synthetic cannabis died from accidents.
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