Feature Channels: Drugs and Drug Abuse

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Patients receiving buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) are more likely to use medications for chronic, unrelated conditions, suggests a study in the September issue of Medical Care. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study shows how one state’s surgeons reduced the number of opioids they prescribed to thousands of patients -- without causing patients to feel more pain or less satisfied with their surgical experience.

• share
• favorite_border

AnaBios Corp. today announced it is providing validated human dorsal root ganglion (hDRG) to the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for research collaborations to develop human cell-based screening platforms and novel drugs to treat pain and opioid use disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

A researcher from the University of Houston has found that adults who take prescription opioids for severe pain are more likely to have increased anxiety, depression and substance abuse issues if they also use marijuana.

• share
• favorite_border

Sixty percent of privately insured children undergoing tonsil removal received opioids –with average prescriptions lasting about six to 10 days – a new study finds.

• share
• favorite_border

An increasing number of Americans are using opioids to treat their migraine headaches, despite the fact that opioids are not the recommended first-line therapy for migraine in most cases. Migraine care specialist Sait Ashina, MD, a neurologist and Director of the Comprehensive Headache Center at the Arnold-Warfield Pain Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, presented the survey findings at the 61st annual meeting of the American Headache Society.

• share
• favorite_border

Posting on social media, texting, and appearing in photos while high is prevalent among people who use drugs—and many regret these behaviors, according to a study by the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at NYU College of Global Public Health.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study shows that a person taking the medicinal cannabis derivative cannabidiol (CBD) won’t fail a drug test for marijuana—but a person taking the emerging sleep aid cannabinol (CBN) will. These findings were presented today at the 71st AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo, and could prevent people from being unfairly penalized for using CBN.

• share
• favorite_border

AACC released a position statement today calling for increased collaboration between clinical laboratories, the healthcare community, and federal agencies to end the opioid epidemic. The statement emphasizes that labs are critical to preventing opioid abuse and urges the medical community and government to leverage the expertise of clinical laboratory professionals to curb soaring drug overdoses in the U.S.

• share
• favorite_border

For the past half-decade, Detroit's government and community groups have worked to tear down abandoned houses and other buildings in the city's most blight-stricken neighborhoods, in the name of public safety and quality of life.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine will collaborate with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the Durham County Sheriff’s Office to implement and evaluate two new opioid addiction treatment programs for people in the criminal justice system.

• share
• favorite_border

Ketamine has gotten a bad rap as an opioid when there’s plenty of evidence suggesting it isn’t one, Johns Hopkins experts say. They believe this reputation may hamper patients from getting necessary treatment for the kinds of depression that don’t respond to typical antidepressants. In a new paper, the researchers clarify the mechanism behind ketamine’s mechanism of action in hopes of restoring the therapy’s standing among health care professionals and the public.

• share
• favorite_border

An opioid use score based on state prescription databases does not predict complications or other adverse outcomes in patients undergoing spinal surgery, reports a study in the journal Spine. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

UChicago Medicine researchers have been awarded a five-year, $17 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to study how best to reduce opioid addiction and overdoses in prisons.

• share
• favorite_border

Nearly half of American women having a baby in the last decade received a prescription for a powerful opioid painkiller as part of their birth experience, a new study shows. And one or two in every hundred were still filling opioid prescriptions a year later – especially those who received birth-related opioid prescriptions before the birth, and those who received the largest initial doses.

• share
• favorite_border

What happens when we give up? Inside the brain, a group of cells known as nociceptin neurons get very active before a mouse's breakpoint. They emit nociceptin, a complex molecule that suppresses dopamine, a chemical largely associated with motivation.

• share
• favorite_border

Patrick McGinley and Suzanne Weise represented pro bono the Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette-Mail and its parent company, HD Media, in a year-long federal court legal battle to force the public release of government information identifying the volume of prescription opioid pills that flooded the United States and fueled a national health crisis.

• share
• favorite_border

American teenagers and adults are more likely to try illegal or recreational drugs for the first time in the summer, a new study shows.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

For infants with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) due to prenatal opioid exposure, poverty is a risk factor for prolonged length of hospital stay, reports a study in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A new study in the American Sociological Review carefully traces the contagion of opioid use among families. The study’s conclusions should impact how and when opioids are prescribed, particularly when driven by patient demand.

• share
• favorite_border

The N.J. Department of Labor and Workforce Development (LWD) has awarded a $385,000 grant to Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Division of Addiction Psychiatry to conduct opioid and naloxone trainings for the state’s employment program for individuals affected by the opioid epidemic.

• share
• favorite_border

Roughly 11% of high school seniors reported prescription drug misuse during the past year, and of those, 44% used multiple supply sources, according to a pair of University of Michigan studies.

• share
• favorite_border

Finding a new doctor for health checkups and general care can pose a challenge to anyone. But for people who take prescription opioid pills for their chronic pain, it might be far harder, according to a new study.

• share
• favorite_border

A new research report shows an increase in patients being prescribed opioids after experiencing an ankle sprain. The Michigan Medicine authors urge fellow physicians to be aware of the current treatment guidelines.

• share
• favorite_border

UK team believes their approach is a valuable step forward that will improve understanding of drug-use decisions and advance the development of improved treatments.

• share
• favorite_border

The herb kratom is increasingly being used to manage pain and treat opioid addiction, but it’s not safe to use as an herbal supplement, according to new research led by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

• share
• favorite_border

The males of one species of butterfly are more attracted to females that are active, not necessarily what they look like, according to a recent research conducted at Augustana University.The paper, “Behaviour before beauty: Signal weighting during mate selection in the butterfly Papilio polytes,” found that males of the species noticed the activity levels of potential female mates, not their markings.

• share
• favorite_border

A first-of-its kind online course series aims to educate clinicians, dispensary workers and patients about the latest research on the risks and benefits of medicinal marijuana use.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Plastic surgery trainees in the United States prescribe higher doses of opioids than their counterparts in Canada, suggests a study in the July issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

• share
• favorite_border

ASA today announced Heron Therapeutics, Inc., a developer of novel, pharmaceutical treatments to reduce postsurgical pain and for patients with cancer, has joined ASA’s Industry Supporter Program to support the Society’s more than 53,000 physician anesthesiologists members and improve patient care.

• share
• favorite_border

Babies born after being exposed to both opioids and benzodiazepines before birth are more likely to have severe drug withdrawal, requiring medications like morphine for treatment, compared to infants exposed to opioids alone, according to a Vanderbilt University Medical Center study published in Hospital Pediatrics.

• share
• favorite_border

Whether it’s a rare treat or a weekly routine, many older adults enjoy spending time with grandchildren. But a new poll suggests many could do more to reduce the risk of their medications harming their grandchild. More than 80% keep their medication in its usual place when grandchildren visit them – and 72% keep medicines in their purse or bag when visiting grandchildren.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Utah Health researchers explored the need for continued substance abuse counseling and access to naloxone prescriptions and mental health care in the year following childbirth.

• share
• favorite_border

Dozens of counties in the Midwest and South are at the highest risk for opioid deaths in the United States, say University of Michigan researchers.

• share
• favorite_border

In a new study published in JAMA Network Open, University of Kentucky researchers, in collaboration with researchers from Ferris State University, examined whether legal mandates on naloxone coprescription in certain states increased naloxone dispensing.

• share
• favorite_border

NYU Langone Health has announced the creation of the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy to track and investigate the causes of emerging trends in opioid misuse, disorder, and overdose, to inform policies to prevent opioid misuse, disorder and overdose, and to figure out how to protect communities from the direct and indirect downstream effects the opioid crisis can have on the health of families and communities.

• share
• favorite_border

Every year, millions of Americans misuse or abuse prescription medications, sometimes leading to emergency room visits, addiction or even death. The problem has worsened amid the ongoing opioid crisis. To prevent drugs from falling into the wrong hands, it's more important than ever to dispose of unused pills in a safe and smart way -- and simply throwing them away or even flushing them down the toilet are actually very dangerous options.

• share
• favorite_border

After a personal experience with a patient inspired him to make some changes, Dr. Phillip Chang worked with pharmacist Doug Oyler to initiate a small pilot study in UK HealthCare's trauma service with the goal of reducing opioid prescriptions. That small study has grown and created a "culture change" at UK HealthCare, drastically reducing the number of opioid prescriptions written and reducing high-risk opioid use by 57 percent.

• share
• favorite_border

Orthopaedic surgeons are the third-highest physician prescribers of opioids, writing more than 6 million prescriptions a year. Because over-dispensing of opioids is a factor contributing to the ongoing opioid epidemic, researchers at Johns Hopkins surveyed orthopaedic providers to better understand what drives their prescribing practices and to identify gaps in knowledge and potentially worrisome trends. In their survey of 127 orthopaedic providers in the Baltimore area, the Johns Hopkins researchers found that respondents frequently recommended prescribing a nine-day supply of around-the-clock oxycodone doses following commonly performed orthopaedic surgeries. The researchers also found that risk factors that might normally warrant prescribing fewer opioids, such as a history of drug misuse or depression, often did not diminish hypothetical prescribing rates.

• share
• favorite_border

Discovery’s Science Channel has teamed up with Mount Sinai Health System, one of the country’s leading academic medical institutions, to showcase some of the groundbreaking innovations in science and medicine that are transforming health care and providing new treatments for the most intractable diseases and conditions.

• share
• favorite_border

Tobacco dependence is very common in patients hospitalized with substance use disorders (SUDs) – but most don't receive recommended treatment for tobacco dependence while in the hospital, reports a study in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

A cohort study by Stony Brook University researchers of all payer hospital data on Long Island combined with census data indicates that opioid poisoning (OP) levels almost doubled from 2010 to 2016. The study also revealed that the demographics of patients with OP appears to be becoming more diverse.