Fentanyl News and Research

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Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opiate analgesic similar to but more potent than morphine. It is typically used to treat patients with severe pain, or to manage pain after surgery. It is also sometimes used to treat people with chronic pain who are physically tolerant to opiates. It is a schedule II prescription drug.

New long-term opioid use associated with a heightened risk of death, study finds

New long term use of opioids to quell pain after lung cancer surgery is linked to a 40% heightened risk of death from any cause within the next 2 years, finds research published online in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine.

13 Sep 2022

EEG tests reveal fentanyl's effects on the brain

Fentanyl is used to supplement sedation and to relieve severe pain during and after surgery, but it's also one of the deadliest drugs of the opioid epidemic.

30 Aug 2022

A needle exchange project modeled on urban efforts aims to save lives in rural Nevada

Richard Cusolito believes he's saving lives by distributing clean syringes and needles to people who use drugs in this rural area of northeastern Nevada — but he knows some residents disagree.

24 Aug 2022

Key gene sheds light on how people develop tolerance to pain-relievers over time

UF Scripps Biomedical Research scientists have a discovered a key gene that is shedding light on how people develop tolerance to pain-relievers over time, a problem that raises risk of addiction and overdose.

18 Aug 2022

Public health agencies adapt covid lessons to curb overdoses, STDs, and gun violence

Shannan Piccolo walked into a hotel with a tote bag full of Narcan and a speech about how easy it is to use the medicine that can reverse opioid overdoses.

17 Aug 2022

Methamphetamine use is pervasive and drives overdoses in rural communities across the U.S.

Methamphetamine remains a stubbornly prevalent illicit substance in large swaths of rural America, according to a new study by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and other institutions.

15 Aug 2022

They call it ‘tranq’ — and it’s making street drugs even more dangerous

Approaching a van that distributes supplies for safer drug use in Greenfield, Massachusetts, a man named Kyle noticed an alert about xylazine.

11 Aug 2022

Experts use tools from artificial intelligence to rapidly identify substances that cause overdose deaths

An automated process based on computer algorithms that can read text from medical examiners' death certificates can substantially speed up data collection of overdose deaths – which in turn can ensure a more rapid public health response time than the system currently used, new UCLA research finds.

9 Aug 2022

Study highlights the urgency of removing barriers to accessing medications for opioid use disorder

The opioid overdose and death epidemic continues to worsen across the United States, but medications such as methadone, buprenorphine, and extended-release naltrexone are proven to reduce opioid overdoses by more than 50 percent.

4 Aug 2022

Music festivals embrace overdose reversal drugs, but fentanyl testing kits remain taboo

A 26-year-old was found dead at his campsite during the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in 2019. The toxicology report linked his death to a grim trend that has only worsened since.

3 Aug 2022

Administering low-dose buprenorphine intravenously may be a quick way to treat patients with substance use disorders

Overdose deaths involving opioids continue to be a major public health crisis, killing 1,280 people in Baltimore City in 2020, according to the Maryland Department of Health. Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have developed a new way to treat patients with substance use disorders intravenously by administering small doses of buprenorphine, a prescription drug used to treat opioid use disorder.

1 Aug 2022

Future wave of opioid-involved overdose deaths will spike in rural and urban areas

Over the past 21 years of opioid overdose deaths-;from prescription drugs to heroin to synthetic and semisynthetic opioids such as fentanyl-;geography has played a role in where opioid-involved overdose deaths have occurred, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

28 Jul 2022

Study finds a drop in percentage of methadone-involved overdose deaths from January 2019 to August 2021

The percentage of methadone-involved overdose deaths relative to all drug overdose deaths declined from January 2019 to August 2021, according to a new study.

13 Jul 2022

Crowdsourced data on overdoses pinpoints where to help

Men lined up outside the Corner of Hope, a homeless resource center, eyeing free supplies on plastic shelves inside a white van.

5 Jul 2022

Data-driven simulation model projects three key strategies that could save many lives from opioid crisis

A significant challenge in addressing the country's opioid crisis is that policies based on past patterns of behavior may have unintended consequences because those patterns change over time.

24 Jun 2022

Sobering lessons in untying the knot of a homeless crisis

Michelle Farris never expected to become homeless, but here she was, sifting through garbage and towering piles of debris accumulated along a roadway on the outskirts of Northeast Portland.

21 Jun 2022

Flexible model of care can be effective in treating opioid use disorder

Did you know that more than 26,500 Canadians died from opioid intoxication between January 2016 and September 2021? Or that more than 350,000 people who used drugs containing opioids to relieve their pain did so problematically?

15 Jun 2022

Fentanyl can induce changes similar to autism-like behaviors in young mice

Fentanyl, a mu-opioid receptor agonist, is one of the most commonly used analgesics in the hospital and may induce long-lasting behavioral and somatosensory impairment in rodents.

14 Jun 2022

As Biden fights overdoses, harm reduction groups face local opposition

Casey Malish had just pulled into an intersection in the 2nd Ward when a woman with tattoos and pinkish hair unexpectedly hopped into the back seat of his gray Mazda. He handles outreach for the Houston Harm Reduction Alliance, a nonprofit that helps drug users like her stay alive.