Substance Use Disorder News and Research

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Report highlights the need to improve quality of care for high-risk veterans

Veterans who have served in the U.S. military since the 9/11 attacks have a high level of need for both substance use treatment and mental health care, yet many do not receive appropriate help for their co-occurring disorders, according to a new RAND Corporation report.

22 Jul 2020

Many private post-acute care facilities explicitly discriminate patients with substance use disorder

A new study shows that 29 percent of private post-acute care facilities in Massachusetts explicitly discriminated against hospitalized individuals with opioid use disorder, rejecting their referral for admission.

16 Jul 2020

ATS releases new practice guideline on treating tobacco dependence in adult smokers

Smoking cessation initiatives notwithstanding, along with provocative public health campaigns and clinical guidance, quitting tobacco has remained elusive for many smokers.

15 Jul 2020

Coronavirus crisis disrupts treatment for another epidemic: Addiction

Shawn Hayes was thankful to be holed up at a city-run hotel for people with COVID-19.

6 Jul 2020

Oral antibiotic therapy can effectively treat infections in people who inject illicit drugs

People who inject illicit drugs can develop potentially deadly infections of the heart, blood, joints and soft tissues.

17 Jun 2020

Study shows how psychedelic drug psilocybin works in the brain

Perhaps no region of the brain is more fittingly named than the claustrum, taken from the Latin word for "hidden or shut away."

5 Jun 2020

Study finds large racial/ethnic differences in use of medication for OUD during pregnancy

Black non-Hispanic and Hispanic women with opioid use disorder are significantly less likely to receive or to consistently use any medication to treat their opioid use disorder during pregnancy than their white non-Hispanic counterparts, according to a new study from Massachusetts General Hospital.

27 May 2020

Brief intervention effective in preventing increased and riskier drug use

Individuals who used drugs occasionally reported less use six months after a motivational interview with a health professional, while individuals who did not receive the intervention reported more use.

11 May 2020

Study: Scant proportion of hospitalized patients with opioid use disorder receive treatment

Despite a national opioid-related overdose epidemic that continues to claim tens of thousands of lives annually, a new nationwide study shows that a scant proportion of hospitalized patients with opioid use disorder receive proven life-saving medications both during and after they're discharged.

8 May 2020

Pharmacy-level barriers limit treatment for opioid use disorder in Appalachian Kentucky

A new study led by University of Kentucky researcher April Young and Emory University researcher Hannah Cooper shows that a number of pharmacies in the Appalachian region of Kentucky are limiting the dispensing of buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder.

28 Apr 2020

C2C receives competitive grant to help address opioid crisis

Keep people alive. Refer them to those who save lives. Finally, connect them to effective, peer-based treatment.

27 Apr 2020

What are the side effects of social and physical distancing?

Researchers Sandro Galea from the Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Raina M. Merchant, from the Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, and Nicole Lurie, from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Oslo, Norway, published an opinion paper in the JAMA Internal Medicine titled, “The Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19 and Physical Distancing The Need for Prevention and Early Intervention”.

12 Apr 2020

Newsom’s ambitious health care agenda crumbles in a ‘radically changed’ world

This was supposed to be a big health care year for California.

9 Apr 2020

They fell in love helping drug users. But fear kept him from helping himself.

She was in medical school. He was just out of prison.

27 Feb 2020

Trusting injection drug users with IV antibiotics at home: It can work

Two mornings a week, Arthur Jackson clears space on half of his cream-colored sofa. He sets out a few rolls of tape and some gauze, then waits for a knock on his front door.

26 Feb 2020

Proactive outreach can be an effective way to improve long-term opioid use disorder care

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 The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

20 Feb 2020

Fighting against treatment-resistant opioid use disorder

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.

19 Feb 2020

Higher opioid doses do not seem to improve pain, study finds

Increasing chronic pain patients' opioid prescription doses does not seem to improve pain, according to a Veterans Affairs study.

5 Feb 2020

Good rehab is hard to find

Pattie Vargas saw with frightening clarity that her son Joel, 25 at the time, had a life-threatening drug problem. He came home one day in 2007 "high as a kite," went to bed and slept four days straight, Vargas, now a 65-year-old resident of Vacaville, California, recalls.