Feature Channels: Drugs and Drug Abuse

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The Tulane School of Social Work hopes the surveys will provide important data on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on mental and behavioral health.

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Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have discovered a new role for the brain chemical dopamine that is independent of classic neurotransmission. The new role appears to be critical to changes in gene expression related to chronic exposure to, or abuse of, cocaine, according to a study published Friday, April 10, in the journal Science.

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As the COVID-19 pandemic has rattled routines for both urban and rural residents, one group is fighting to gain ground while facing widespread shelter-in-place directives.

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Researchers in the Arizona State University Department of Psychology have shown that chemogenetic activation of the anterior insula restores prosocial behavior in an animal model of opioid addiction and empathy. The findings suggest an important role for the anterior insula in the brain response to addiction.

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Rats with regular access to cannabis seek more of the substance and tend to show increased drug-seeking behavior when cannabis is absent.

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Saint Louis University School of Medicine is tackling the country’s opioid abuse crisis by training community physicians to recognize and treat addictions.

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Value in Health, the official journal of ISPOR—the professional society for health economics and outcomes research, announced today the publication of new research showing mixed clinical results of an electronic medical record-embedded clinical decision support system for opioid prescribing.

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Proactive outreach, including knocking on the doors of individuals who recently overdosed on opioids, can be an effective way to engage more people who have opioid use disorder with long-term care, according to researchers at UTHealth.

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A reduction in suicides among patients at a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facility may be due to a multispecialty opioid risk reduction program that included addiction management treatment, according to a new study presented this week at the Association of Academic Physiatrists Annual Meeting in Orlando.

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Chronic pain, a disabling health condition that affects 50 million to 116 million Americans, is often treated with opioids, despite little evidence of long-term benefit and risks of addiction and overdose. Do patients know their options beyond opioids? Are doctors telling them?

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Naloxone, a life-saving drug that can rapidly reverse the effects of opioid overdose, should be in every first-aid kit and medicine cabinet. That is the conclusion Nancy Campbell reached after years of research and dozens of interviews with scientists, drug users, and activists in the United States and abroad.

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Patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) receiving treatment with opioid agonists (medications such as methadone or buprenorphine) had an 80 percent lower risk of dying from an opioid overdose compared to patients in treatment without the use of medications.

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At the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), researchers conducted an online survey of 362 Pennsylvania school nurses (elementary, middle, and high school) to better understand how they have a supply, administer, and perceive storing naloxone in their schools. The results illustrate that though many nurses have a supply of naloxone in their school, important barriers to access and use of this life-saving medication still exist.

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The motivation to start cooking meth is often driven by addiction, but a new study takes a closer look at the reasons cooks engage in this criminal behavior and come to see it as a job. Researchers say the work offers insight that can help with the development of prevention and rehabilitation efforts.

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Similar to treatment resistant depression, there is a subpopulation of those addicted to opioids who do not respond to standard opioid use disorder (OUD) treatments. In a new paper, an addiction expert at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis suggests a new category for these types of patients: treatment resistant opioid use disorder (TROUD).

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Nearly 2,500 adolescents and adults in rural communities across South Dakota are better prepared to prevent opioid misuse through SDSU Extension’s Strengthening the Heartland Program.

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Rural areas have been hit hard by the opioid crisis, but few studies have been done to understand how to improve access to treatment and reduce the overdose death rate in these communities, according to a new study by Rutgers University, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University.

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Researchers at Michigan State University’s Precision Health Program have helped develop a fascinating new method called magnetic levitation for detecting the density of proteins in the blood that could vastly improve the rate at which diseases are detected and diagnosed.

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Using results of a survey of more than 2,700 self-reported users of the herbal supplement kratom, sold online and in smoke shops around the U.S., Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers conclude that the psychoactive compound somewhat similar to opioids likely has a lower rate of harm than prescription opioids for treating pain, anxiety, depression and addiction.

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Using an immunotherapy drug in combination with an infusion of anti-tumor immune cells may produce a stronger immune response that could help fight advanced melanoma.

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While Medicaid expansion has led to substantial increases in Medicaid reimbursement for substance use treatment, it has not specifically led to a detectable increase in hiring attempts to increase the substance use disorder and behavioral health treatment workforce, according to a study by Indiana University researchers.

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In a study published in Cancer Cell, researchers reported new findings about the regulation of co-stimulatory molecules that could be used to activate cancer-killing immune cells – chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, or CAR-T – or decrease their activity.

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Nearly 37 percent of electronic dance music (EDM) party attendees test positive for ketamine use when samples of their hair are tested—despite only 14.6 percent disclosing that they have used the drug in the past year.

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The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) today announced the launch of two new monthly podcasts for physician anesthesiologists, the anesthesia care team, residents, medical students and anesthesiology community.

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Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) is currently used to treat neutropenia due to chemotherapy and has been successfully used for patients who require bone marrow transplants. The study is the first to report on the neuroprotective effect of GCSF in vivo and showed that it improved neurological deficits that occur in the first few days following cerebral ischemia. GCSF improved long-term behavioral outcomes while also stimulating a neural progenitor recovery response in a mouse model.

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Research by a University of Georgia psychologist shows that targeting one particular symptom of schizophrenia has a positive effect on other symptoms.

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The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) and the South Dakota Society of Anesthesiologists (SDSA) strongly oppose SB 50, which will needlessly dismantle the anesthesia care team model in South Dakota by authorizing nurse anesthetists to administer anesthesia without physician supervision. Additionally, the bill will authorize nurse anesthetists to prescribe patients potentially dangerous controlled substances, including opioids, and perform intricate pain medicine procedures all with no physician oversight or involvement.

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Promising intracellular protein-based therapeutics have been of limited use due to the difficulty of delivery into diseased cells. Now bioengineers have developed nanoparticles that can deliver these therapeutics to their targets—avoiding degradation and toxic interactions with healthy tissues.

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Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have found that orthostatic hypotension was not associated with higher risk of cardiovascular events, falls, or fainting among participants in The Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial. In a study published in the journal Hypertension, the scientists showed that hypertension treatment had no impact on the link between OH and cardiovascular outcomes or other adverse events.

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A new study led by physician-researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) reports that the antihypertensive drug amlodipine lowered long-term gout risk compared to two other drugs commonly prescribed to lower blood pressure. The findings are published in the Journal of Hypertension.

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A new drug that could make it easier for doctors to diagnose multiple sclerosis (MS) in its earlier stages has been approved for its first human trials by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

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Individuals with a history of early life adversity (ELA) are disproportionately prone to opioid addiction. A new UCI-led study reveals why. Published in Molecular Psychiatry, the study titled, “On the early life origins of vulnerability to opioid addiction,” examines how early adversities interact with factors such as increased access to opioids to directly influence brain development and function, causing a higher potential for opioid addiction.

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Approximately one-quarter of patients who are prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them, with five to 10 percent developing an opioid use disorder or addiction. In a new study, UC San Diego researchers found that opioid dependence produced permanent changes in the brains of rats.

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As we enter a new year and a new decade, many states have enacted legislation affecting the roles of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) in terms of practice authority, reimbursement, and prescriptive authority, according to the 32nd Annual Legislative Update in the January issue of The Nurse Practitioner, published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Many Medicare patients with new episodes of low back pain receive care inconsistent with current guidelines – including high use of opioids and advanced imaging tests, reports a study in the February issue of Medical Care. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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Surgeons at Houston Methodist Hospital are stemming the tide of addiction to prescription opioids by managing patients’ pain after surgery. By using long-acting local anesthetics at the site of surgery and scheduled non-narcotic pain medicine, they decreased opioid prescriptions from 87% to 10% after surgery.

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Complimentary press passes and virtual newsroom access are now available for the Experimental Biology (EB) 2020 meeting, to be held April 4–7 in San Diego.

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A study of more than 4 million Medicaid claims records during a recent seven-year period concludes that less than a third of the nearly 3,800 U.S. adolescents and young adults who experienced a nonfatal opioid overdose got timely (within 30 days) follow-up addiction treatment to curb or prevent future misuse and reduce the risk of a second overdose.

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The goal of the survey is to collect data that will help experts develop interventions to support musicians.

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A series of seven articles in AACN Advanced Critical Care focuses on the challenges of safe, effective pain management in the ICU, including more Americans reporting daily chronic pain and the rapidly increasing prevalence of opioid misuse and opioid use disorder.

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The expansion of Medicaid coverage for low-income adults permitted by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was associated with a six percent reduction in total opioid overdose deaths nationally, according to new research from NYU Grossman School of Medicine and University of California, Davis.

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With $3 million in funding from NIDA and NIGMS, UK College of Arts & Sciences Professor Carrie Oser is leading a new study focusing on factors that influence a person’s decision to use one of the three FDA-approved medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder in the criminal justice setting.

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Low-income people with addiction, especially those with addiction to opioids, may find it hard to access the kind of care they need to recover no matter where they live, a new study suggests. But treatment for opioid problems is especially scarce in states that may drop people from their Medicaid health insurance rolls -- unless they can show that they’re working, in school, have a disability or are medically frail or receiving treatment for substance use disorder.

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New research into the biology of depression, along with new and evolving technologies, provides the basis for developing the next generation of treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD), according to the special January/February issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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At a family medicine clinic in the Boston area, a team led by faculty from Tufts University School of Medicine conducted a five-year case study where they found medical facilities can help physicians to treat chronic pain in a way that will deter opioid misuse, while creating better processes to identify and treat patients who develop an opioid use disorder.