Feature Channels: Substance Abuse

• share
• favorite_border

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Despite increased attention to opioid abuse, prescriptions have remained relatively unchanged for many U.S. patients, research led by Mayo Clinic finds. The research, published in The BMJ, shows that opioid prescription rates have remained flat for commercially insured patients over the past decade. Rates for some Medicare patients are leveling but remain above where they were 10 years ago.

• share
• favorite_border

Nearly a third of older adults have received a prescription for an opioid pain medicine in the past two years, but a new poll shows many didn’t get enough counseling about the risks that come with them, how to reduce use, when to switch to a non-opioid, or what to do with leftovers. Nearly three-quarters support limits on how many opioids a doctor can prescribe at once.

• share
• favorite_border

The study compared the performance of weekly and monthly CAM2038, with the current standard of care, a daily sublingual dose of buprenorphine/naloxone. Results showed the drug’s non-inferiority on the primary responder rate outcome, which was based upon highly sensitive urine testing detecting illicit opioids. The data suggests that injectable buprenorphine is efficacious and may have advantages.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

New and innovative pain treatments to replace opioids will not be discovered unless pain research funding becomes a priority on Capitol Hill. The APS Pain Research Agenda, published in the Journal of Pain in 2014, states “the most direct path to achieving dramatic advances in pain treatment is through substantially increased investment in pain research and education, which would enable the pursuit of an aggressive translational pain-research agenda.”

• share
• favorite_border

Mental health and substance abuse issues in adolescents have become major societal problems, forcing parents and health providers to look for innovative treatment options that may better suit some teens. However, some proven therapy programs, like Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH), can be challenging to access because many are not covered by insurance companies – creating an enormous cost burden for parents. Now, a landmark study by researchers at the University of New Hampshire has found that parents of youth who went through an outdoor behavioral program report that their children showed almost three times the improvement after one year than youth who remained in their communities for more traditional treatment.

• share
• favorite_border

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) refers to deliberate, socially unacceptable destruction of one’s own body tissue performed without the intention to die

• share
• favorite_border

In areas of the country disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis, treatment programs are less likely to accept patients paying through insurance of any type or accept pregnant women, a new Vanderbilt study found.

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Illinois at Chicago researcher says most overdoses and opioid-related overdose deaths in Illinois are now caused by heroin use, often in combination with potent synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl and carfentanyl.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers are testing the safety and efficacy of a drug originally developed by Pfizer to treat obesity and diabetes that blocks gherlin, known as the hunger hormone. In those with alcohol use disorder, higher concentrations of ghrelin are associated with higher alcohol craving and consumption. The researchers believe that an oral medication that blocks ghrelin may help stave off cravings for alcohol.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers in the School of Public Health are conducting a clinical trial to see whether psilocybin, the active compound found in Psilocybe mushrooms, will help individuals addicted to cocaine stop using the harmful drug.

• share
• favorite_border

In the first 90 days of concurrent opioid and benzodiazepine use, the risk of opioid-related overdose increases five-fold compared to opioid-only use among Medicare recipients, according to a new study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy.

• share
• favorite_border

In this issue, find research on Prop. 47 and drug arrests, teen self-injury, LGBQ substance abuse, women’s tobacco use, public housing and asthma

• share
• favorite_border

Rutgers Professor Stephen Crystal, who co-authored a pioneering study showing that U.S. survivors of opioid overdoses are highly likely to die within a year from drug use–related causes, suicide and wide-ranging diseases, is available for interviews. The study was published online in JAMA Psychiatry today.

• share
• favorite_border

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent, affecting individuals from adolescence through adulthood. While alcohol is a known contributing cause of IPV, researchers are examining why some individuals who drink become violent but others who drink do not. These results and others will be shared at the 41st annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) in San Diego June 17-21.

• share
• favorite_border

Systematic review of task-related neuroimaging studies found addicted individuals demonstrate increased activity in these networks during drug-related processing but decreases across all other functions

• share
• favorite_border

Startling increases in nationwide deaths from drug overdoses, alcohol, and suicides constitute a public health crisis – spurring an urgent call for a National Resilience Strategy to stem these "deaths of despair." The proposal is outlined in a special commentary in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists), the 45,000-member national association representing pharmacists who serve as patient care providers in acute and ambulatory care settings, is calling for swift action from policymakers to address the persistent shortages of critical medications in hospitals and health systems. Survey results released today by ASHP reveal the extent to which limited inventories of injectable opioids, small-volume parenteral (SVP) solutions, and other critical medications dangerously interfere with patient care and place a tremendous strain on daily operations in most hospitals across the country.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Canadian researchers find that boys who start smoking pot before 15 are much more likely to have a drug problem at 28 than those who start at 15 or after.

• share
• favorite_border

The researchers examined 17 years of transplantation records and found no significant change in the recipients’ chance of survival when the organ donation came from victims of drug intoxication. The study publishes online on May 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

About 22 million Americans are substance dependent, yet only 2.5 million seek treatment. Reviewing 5,443 records of adult substance use treatment clients, a new study examined treatment readiness, or the characteristics that are likely to promote treatment engagement, to predict who seeks and stays in treatment. Results show that white and black race, being male, lower levels of education, and being married or divorced (vs. never married) were all negatively related to substance-use treatment engagement.

• share
• favorite_border

The AANA and CRNAs are urging healthcare professionals to consider alternatives to prescribing opioids when treating patients to reduce or eliminate the chances for addiction.

• share
• favorite_border

Michael “Mick” MacLean, associate professor of psychology, who has done extensive research on adolescent alcohol and substance use. Most recently, he’s implemented a strategy for reaching teens who are experiencing substance-related problems but are not yet addicted. Instead of berating them, trying to scare them, or using other well-worn tactics, MacLean suggests “motivational interviewing,” which he said has a significantly higher success rate.

• share
• favorite_border

For patients with substance use disorders seen in the emergency department or doctor's office, locating and accessing appropriate treatment all too often poses difficult challenges. Healthcare providers and treatment facility administrators share their views on delays and obstacles to prompt receipt of substance use disorder treatment after referral in a study in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). This journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Washington study finds that a community-based approach to substance-abuse prevention, which can include after-school activities, can affect young people into adulthood.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have developed a vaccine for one of the most dangerous types of synthetic cathinones, or bath salts. The vaccine blunts the illegal stimulant’s effects on the brain, which could help recovering drug users who experience a relapse.

• share
• favorite_border

Casi un tercio de los pacientes respondió a una encuesta de Mayo Clinic e informó que no consumió ninguno de los analgésicos opioides recetados después de la cirugía. Los resultados también revelaron que solo alrededor del 8 por ciento de los pacientes se deshizo de los opioides restantes.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Every day, nearly 100 Americans die after overdosing on opioids, including prescription pain medications. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Approximately 16.7 million people used prescription drugs for a nonmedical purpose in the past year. Of the nonmedical users of prescription drugs, nearly 70% obtained their pills from family and friends, including someone else’s medication being stolen from the home medicine cabinet. Appropriate disposal of unused medications is a critical component of curbing the opioid crisis.

• share
• favorite_border

In this issue, find research on Race and opioids, heroin overdose death undercount, folate during pregnancy, age of sexual initiation and health outcomes

• share
• favorite_border

In a multicenter database study of adults who had undergone surgery for spinal deformities, researchers say that those who had used narcotics daily on average had worse outcomes, such as longer intensive care unit stays and more severe postop disability, compared with those who did not use opioids preoperatively.

• share
• favorite_border

Approximately, 1.5 million high school students are hazed each year, according to the National Collaborative for Hazing Research and Prevention.

• share
• favorite_border

he American Pain Society (APS) today endorsed aggressive action by the National Institutes of Health to accelerate scientific solutions to help resolve the nation’s opioid crisis by doubling funding for research on opioid misuse and pain management.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Notre Dame and Boston University found that while prescription opioid consumption stopped rising in August 2010, heroin overdose deaths began climbing the following month, and the rate of growth was greater in areas with greater pre-reformulation access to heroin and opioids. 

• share
• favorite_border

The most frequent and public opioid users may be the best available candidates for naloxone training, according to a new study from scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

• share
• favorite_border

The minor, open to undergraduate students in all academic disciplines, will provide students with a broad-based view of addiction theories, assessment and treatment to prepare them for employment in substance use disorder treatment and related settings.

• share
• favorite_border

The more educated a member of the baby boomer generation, the more likely they are to misuse prescription opioids, according to new research from the University at Buffalo.

• share
• favorite_border

Low back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting an estimated 540 million people at any one time. Yet, a new Series of papers in The Lancet highlights the extent to which the condition is mistreated, often against best practice treatment guidelines.

• share
• favorite_border

Unique partnership between health system and county in Delaware will help individuals receive addiction treatment and support after they are released from the emergency department following treatment from an opioid overdose.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

As the opioid epidemic continues to spread across the country, Texas is taking some important steps in the battle, from improved monitoring of prescription painkillers to expanded programs to treat addiction.

• share
• favorite_border

Dr. Michelle Lofwall was among the experts tapped to assist in the development of guidelines regarding the use of medication in the treatment of opioid use disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

The number of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admissions for opioid overdoses doubled between 2004 and 2015, despite continuing efforts to curb misuse of the addictive painkillers among adults, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Chicago Medicine published in the journal Pediatrics.

• share
• favorite_border

Children and adolescents undergoing surgery can be swept up in the ongoing opioid epidemic, according to a review and update in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics, official journal of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA). The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

• share
• favorite_border

Rutgers trains correction officers to better understand substance use disorder as a treatable disease

• share
• favorite_border

Exercise has numerous, well-documented health benefits. Could it also play a role in preventing and reducing substance misuse and abuse in adolescents? This is the intriguing question that a team of investigators from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Cleveland Clinic seeks to answer. In a review article recently published in Birth Defects Research, the trio of researchers supplies a rationale for the use of exercise, particularly assisted exercise, in the prevention and adjunctive treatment of substance-use disorders – including alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, opioids, and heroin.

• share
• favorite_border

A new website will provide a vital link for Kentucky health care providers, court officials, families and individuals seeking options for substance abuse treatment and recovery. “Find Help Now KY” (www.findhelpnowky.org) will deliver real-time information about available space in substance use disorder treatment program, and guide users to the right type of treatment for their needs.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

While the use of opioids after surgery is intended as a short-term strategy to relieve pain, many patients who weren’t prior opioid users continue to take the medication for several months after their lung operations, becoming dependent and “persistent opioid users."