A research team recently completed county-level assessments of 10 states, highlighting the communities most at risk for a spike in opioid overdose deaths and identifying areas where services for opioid users are lacking. The results for Indiana appear in a paper in Preventive Medicine Reports.
Karen Edmond, director of field education for the Social Work Department at Buffalo State College, shares her thoughts on the profession and how she is helping the next generation of social workers find their placements, right after she was appointed to the Field Directors Committee of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the accrediting body for all social work education programs across the United States.
While many people focus on the role of drugs in overdose deaths, a recent study shows that deaths where drugs were a contributing cause are also on the rise.
Michael J. Moore, a professor of biomedical engineering at Tulane University School of Science and Engineering, is part of a national study that aims to turn around the statistics on opioid addiction.
Adults with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI), even years previously, are at increased risk of use and misuse of prescription opioid medications, reports a study in the September/October special issue of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation (JHTR).
Researchers from the Bruchas Lab at the University of Washington School of Medicine pushed the science forward on our reward pathways and found there is another pathway beyond dopamine.
Researchers at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York have explored the motivational impact of cigarette and alcohol “cues”, with important implications for understanding and treating addiction and relapse.
A rise in heroin and fentanyl in New Jersey between 2014-2019 led to the tripling of medically treated opioid overdoses despite the state’s strict limiting of prescription opioids for pain and substantial state initiatives to expand access to treatment for opioid use disorder, according to a Rutgers-led study.
WV PEERS, a collaborative program between WVU and several community partners, uses peer recovery coaches to increase access to treatment for people who have substance use disorder.
During the COVID-19 public health emergency, more than 2,000 prisoners in New Jersey were released on Nov. 4, 2020—one of the largest rapid reductions of a state prison population in the United States.
Rural regions in the U.S. have been disproportionately affected by the opioid epidemic, while also having the fewest number of programs to treat opioid use disorder.
Researchers identified 579 locations in the human genome associated with a predisposition to self-regulation-related behaviors, such as addiction. With data from 1.5 million people of European descent, the effort is one of the largest genome-wide association studies to date.
In a study of rodents, scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai discovered that a part of the brain traditionally thought to control typing the old habits may also play a critical role in learning the new actions. The results, published on August 25th in Nature Communications, suggest that this process involves a delicate balance in the activity of two neighboring neural circuits: one dedicated to new actions and the other to old habits
The global COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to live in relative isolation for more than a year. As adolescents return to school, public health experts caution parents to pay close attention to signs of tobacco use among teens. While there has been a decline in smoking traditional cigarettes among youth as well as adults, e-cigarette use continues to increase. Experts express concern about rising rates of dual- and poly-tobacco product use, particularly among adolescents and young adults. A new evidence-based research centerThe evidence-based tobacco research program is conducting collaborative research aimed at increasing scientific knowledge to help regulate tobacco products effectively in a way that best serves individual and public health interests.
CHICAGO - Drug overdose deaths broke records during 2020, and while the pandemic no doubt contributed, surgery plays an often-overlooked role in America’s ongoing opioid epidemic because many patients continue to use their prescribed opioids months after their procedures. Pain medicine specialists are leading the way in addressing the opioid epidemic by developing strategies to reduce opioid misuse related to surgery, from helping to ease pain before the procedure to ensuring at-risk patients have access to naloxone to prevent an accidental overdose, according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).
Researchers uncovered the precise hypothalamic neurons that regulate the drive to engage in mating behaviors in mice. The study sets the stage for developing a targeted therapy to offset the sexual side effects linked to antidepressants that can discourage patients from treating mental illnesses.
from alcohol use disorder (AUD) have been clarified in a new study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. AUD recovery was already known to be multidimensional, with behavioral changes – ranging from stopping heavy drinking to complete abstinence – accompanied by partial reversal of alcohol-induced brain damage. While the relationship between early abstinence (the “withdrawal phase”), negative mood, and sex-specific effects of alcohol on the brain’s “reward system” have been well-established, a growing body of evidence is revealing that AUD individuals in long-term abstinence (greater than five years) report higher levels of subjective happiness and emotional well-being, as well as a significantly lower risk of relapse. Yet, the way these long-term behavioral and emotional improvements relate to underlying brain changes, and potentially differ between men and women, remains unknown. To better understand and characterize these aspects of the recovery process, the study’s res
Among adolescents ages 10 to 14 in the U.S, the overall rate of drug use remained relatively stable in the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, one change was a decreased use of alcohol, but an increased use of nicotine and misuse of prescription drugs.
The COVID-19 pandemic drastically affected people’s lives, especially early on. Today, scientists report that wastewater analysis identified drugs that people turned to for relief and those that plummeted in use, between March and June 2020. They will present their results at ACS Fall 2021.
Expert Q&A: Do breakthrough cases mean we will soon need COVID boosters? The extremely contagious Delta variant continues to spread, prompting mask mandates, proof of vaccination, and other measures. Media invited to ask the experts about these and related topics.
The opioid crisis — now one of the leading causes of maternal mortality — continues to rage in Tennessee.
Data show that concurrent with the opioid overdose crisis, there has been an increase in hospitalizations of people with opioid use disorder (OUD). One in ten of these hospitalized medical or surgical patients have comorbid opioid-related diagnoses.
A systematic review and meta-analysis found that using contingency management (CM) at end-of-treatment improved outcomes on six common clinical problems during medication for OUD (MOUD): psychomotor stimulant use, polysubstance use, illicit-opioid use, cigarette smoking, therapy attendance, and medication adherence.
A UC Davis Health study published in JAMA found a 68% increase in overdose events and a doubling of mental health crises among patients who were on stable opioid therapy but saw their doses tapered.
With overdose rates involving cocaine soaring nearly 27% in 2020, researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) hope that a clinical trial combining a medication approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help prevent relapse in cocaine use disorder patients.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is embarking on a massive research project to shed light on early child development, including the health and developmental implications of opioid use during pregnancy. The very first task is to ensure the study — the HEALthy Brain and Child Development study (HBCD) — is on solid legal and ethical ground.
Emergency department visit rates because of an opioid overdose increased by 28.5% across the U.S. in 2020, compared to 2018 and 2019, recent Mayo Clinic research finds. Emergency visits overall decreased by 14% last year, while visits because of an opioid overdose increased by 10.5%. The result: Opioid overdoses were responsible for 0.32 out of 100 visits, or 1 in every 313 visits, which is up from 0.25, or 1 in every 400 visits, the previous two years.
As opioid overdose deaths rose during the COVID-19 pandemic, people seeking treatment for opioid addiction had to wait nearly twice as long to begin methadone treatment in the United States than in Canada, a new Yale study has shown.
According to Chula researchers the volume of online gambling has soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, posing a serious threat to minors, and the government should urgently tackle this problem.
Financial instability, lack of infrastructure, a deteriorating sense of community and family fragmentation are key contributors to diseases of despair in Pennsylvania communities, according to Penn State College of Medicine and Highmark Health researchers.
Members of a coalition of 50+ leading public health groups who issued a set of five guiding principles for spending opioid settlement funds in January are reacting to the announcement of the $26 billion settlement deal between a group of state attorneys general and Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, McKesson, and Johnson & Johnson.
Recognizing the urgent need for comprehensive approaches to opioid use disorder that address the needs of the entire family, the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) is today issuing a new Request for Proposals for projects that will engage and empower vulnerable families and communities to prevent opioid use disorder and overdose.
In response to an announcement from Philip Morris International that the company has agreed to acquire Vectura, a British inhaled medicine company, American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer and American Thoracic Society President Lynn Schnapp MD, ATSF shared the following statement:
The July 30 virtual conference is part of a three-year grant to train clinicians to prescribe medications to treat addiction.
More than 75% of women with Opioid Use Disorder report having had an unintended pregnancy, but they are less likely to use effective contraception compared to women who do not use drugs. Results from a multi-year trial found that a two-part intervention featuring co-located contraceptive services in opioid treatment programs and financial incentives could offer an effective solution.
Combined perceptions of the risk and availability of cannabis influence the risk of cannabis use more than perceived risk and perceived availability alone, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
A new study from the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), published in the journal Lancet Oncology, has found an association between alcohol and a substantially higher risk of several forms of cancer, including breast, colon, and oral cancers.
The Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) will host a webinar on Understanding and Bolstering the Recovery Workforce and release results from the qualitative portion of its first-ever national surgery of peer recovery coaches. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, July 14, 2021, from 3pm to 4:30pm EST.
University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Professor of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, Linda Chang, MD, MS, received the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) 2021 Avant Garde Award (DP1) for HIV/AIDS and Substance Use Disorder Research — a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Pioneer Award.
Rutgers scientists have used a diagnostic technique for the first time in the opioid addiction field that they believe has the potential to determine which opioid-addicted patients are more likely to relapse.
Few patients with alcohol-use problems who might benefit from either pharmacotherapy or specialized addiction treatment typically receive care. That may now change owing to a pilot study which examined the feasibility of providing a real-time video consultation resource in primary care. The study’s findings will be shared at the 44th annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA), which will be held virtually this year from the 19th - 23rd of June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen provide better pain control and have fewer adverse effects than codeine, a commonly prescribed opioid, when prescribed after outpatient surgery, according to new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.201915.
A discovery from researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago may lead to new treatments for individuals who suffer from alcohol use disorder and depression. The study, “Transcriptomics identifies STAT3 as a key regulator of hippocampal gene expression and anhedonia during withdrawal from chronic alcohol exposure,” is published in the journal Translational Psychiatry by researchers at UIC’s Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics.
New research published online in the journal Substance Use & Misuse is good news for those struggling with alcohol dependence: the possibility of ending this dependency gets easier with age.
Researchers at UC San Diego, San Diego State University, and international collaborators have designed and validated a prediction model to signal counties at risk of future overdose death outbreaks.
People who have a high sensation-seeking personality trait may be more likely to develop an addiction to cocaine, according to a Rutgers study.
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