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Fentanyl tops the list of drugs detected in overdose patients at Baltimore hospitals

A new University of Maryland study found fentanyl tops the list of drugs detected in overdose patients at two Baltimore hospital emergency departments.

12 Jun 2020

Opioid prescription for chronic non-cancer pain increased in the last two-and-a-half decades

The number of people with chronic non-cancer pain prescribed an opioid medicine worldwide increased in the last two-and-a-half decades.

25 Feb 2020

Family doctors in rural America tackle crisis of addiction and pain

Dr. Angela Gatzke-Plamann didn’t fully grasp her community’s opioid crisis until one desperate patient called on a Friday afternoon in 2016.

10 Jan 2020

Addictions and drug interactions common among patients not disclosing their medication history

Some patients skip telling their doctors about the drugs and medications they are consuming. A new study shows that these patients are at a greater risk of unpleasant and sometimes dangerous drug-drug interactions as well as addictions. The study was published in the latest issue of The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. The study is titled, “Role of opioid-involved drug interactions in chronic pain management”.

11 Dec 2019

Risk of opioid overdose rises after de-addiction treatment completion

A study from Columbia University reveals that patients, who have been successfully treated with buprenorphine for opioid addiction, are at a greater risk of overdose after completion of the treatment. The study was titled, “Acute care, prescription opioid use, and overdose following discontinuation of long-term buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder”, and was published in the latest issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry. This study was funded and supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

2 Dec 2019

Changes to state law reduce new opioid prescriptions by 22% in Penn Medicine’s New Jersey practices

The total amount of opioids dispensed per new opioid prescription decreased by 22 percent in Penn Medicine outpatient practices in New Jersey after the state passed a law limiting prescriptions to a five-day supply for new opioid prescriptions.

14 Oct 2019

Prescription-only changes reduce codeine misuse in Australia

The move to prescription-only codeine in Australia has seen a 50 percent reduction in the monthly rate of codeine-related poisoning calls and halved codeine sales, finds new research led by the University of Sydney.

3 Oct 2019

Opioids after surgery overly prescribed in USA and Canada

A new study covering several institutions shows that patients recovering from surgery in the US or Canada have a 50% chance of being treated with opioids. This is seven times as high as the corresponding percentage in Sweden. Within the US, the initial dosages are likely to be over 200 morphine milligram equivalents (MME) – much more than in Canada.

5 Sep 2019

In India’s burgeoning pain market, U.S. drugmakers stand to gain

Pain, like death, is a universal phenomenon. The sour grimace on the woman's face, registering her bodily complaints to Dr. G.P. Dureja in his East Delhi office, would be recognized anywhere. Slouched shoulders, pinched forehead. She wore a willowy black kurta and cast a disapproving glance at the five pain physicians-in-training huddled behind Dureja, founder of Delhi Pain Management Centre and one of India's pioneering pain physicians.

28 Aug 2019

Australian overdose deaths - sinister new trend

The incidence of unintentional overdose leading to death is still going up in Australia, says Australia’s Annual Overdose Report 2019. Most of the drugs involved are very powerful. They include prescription opioids and benzodiazepines as well as illegal substances like heroin and crystal methamphetamine or “ice”.

27 Aug 2019

Physicians more likely to recommend antihistamines for respiratory infections in children

For respiratory infections in children under 12, physicians are increasingly more likely to recommend antihistamines and less likely to recommend cough and cold medicines, a Rutgers study found.

29 Jul 2019

Study finds alarmingly high rate of opioid prescriptions for osteoarthritis patients

Opioids work against severe pain but the risks of side effects and addiction are high. In the USA alone, 26 people die every day from overdoses.

8 Jul 2019

US dentists write more opioid prescriptions than England dentists

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have found that dentists practicing in the U.S. write 37 times more opioid prescriptions than dentists practicing in England.

25 May 2019

Opioid prescriptions drop sharply among state workers

The agency that manages health care for California's massive state workforce is reporting a major reduction in opioid prescriptions, reflecting a national trend of physicians cutting back on the addictive drugs.

21 May 2019

Filled opioid prescriptions are relatively rare in Medicaid-enrolled children, finds study

A new study describes trends in filled opioid prescriptions by patient and clinical characteristics for Medicaid-enrolled children.

27 Apr 2019

Painkillers taken by pregnant mothers unlikely to cause asthma in the child

Paracetamol or other painkillers taken during pregnancy are unlikely to cause asthma in the child, according to a large study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Queen Mary University of London.

18 Mar 2019

Taking painkillers during pregnancy is not responsible for asthma risk in children, study shows

A study of almost 500,000 women indicates that taking paracetamol or other painkillers during pregnancy is not responsible for increasing the risk of asthma in children.

18 Mar 2019

More states say doctors must offer overdose reversal drug along with opioids

In a growing number of states, patients who get opioids for serious pain may leave their doctors' offices with a second prescription — for naloxone, a drug that can save their lives if they overdose on the powerful painkillers.

21 Feb 2019

Opiod prescriptions for pet dogs misused by their masters

A new study has shown that Americans are probably increasingly consuming the opioid analgesics that are prescribed for their pet dogs. The research shows that one of the reasons behind rise in the opioid epidemic could be the rise in prescription opioids for dogs.

14 Jan 2019

Misused veterinary prescriptions could contribute to the ongoing opioid epidemic

The increase in opioid prescriptions for people over the past decade may have been paralleled by an increase in opioid prescriptions for pets, according to a study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Veterinary Medicine.

11 Jan 2019