Opioid Addiction News and Research

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Omicron led to higher rates of death in rural America than urban areas

The omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2021 and early 2022 spread like a grass fire in America's densely populated cities but led to higher rates of death in rural counties where vaccinations are lagging.

14 Jun 2022

The Blackfeet nation’s plight underscores the fentanyl crisis on reservations

As the pandemic was setting in during summer 2020, Justin Lee Littledog called his mom to tell her he was moving from Texas back home to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana with his girlfriend, stepson, and son.

25 May 2022

Rigaku Announces Narcotics Interdiction Partnership Program to Help Reduce Deaths by Overdose

Rigaku Analytical Devices, a U.S.-based pioneer of handheld 1064 nm-Raman based spectrometers, is pleased to announce its new Human Infrastructure Health & Awareness (HIHA) Technology Narcotics Identification Partnership Program.

From Rigaku Analytical Devices 10 May 2022

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may help people in opioid addiction treatment

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may help people being treated for opioid addiction reduce their methadone dose and better manage pain and withdrawal symptoms, according to a pair of studies led by Washington State University scientists.

11 Apr 2022

Never-ending costs: When resolved medical bills keep popping up

Every now and then, Suzanne Rybak and her husband, Jim, receive pieces of mail addressed to their deceased son, Jameson. Typically, it's junk mail that requires little thought, Suzanne said.

7 Apr 2022

$11M for North Carolina work-based rehab raises concerns

An addiction treatment facility, highly regarded by North Carolina lawmakers, sits in a residential neighborhood here and operates like a village in itself.

6 Apr 2022

Most individuals treated in emergency departments for opioid use disorder do not sustain treatment

Most people who fill prescriptions from emergency physicians to treat their opioid use disorder do not continue to receive the medication, suggesting new approaches are needed to help people continue drug treatment begun on an emergency basis, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

21 Mar 2022

Calls to overhaul methadone distribution intensify, but clinics resist

Days typically start early for patients undergoing opioid addiction treatment at Denver Recovery Group's six methadone clinics in Colorado.

3 Mar 2022

Some heart surgery patients may be able to control postoperative pain without opioids

Many patients who undergo heart surgery may be able to safely and effectively control postoperative pain without opioids after hospital discharge, according to research published online today in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

6 Jan 2022

Deep roots help this Chicago pharmacist avoid creating another drugstore desert

Del-Kar Pharmacy in the North Lawndale neighborhood has had a front-row seat to history. Martin Luther King Jr. bought his daily newspaper there when he lived in Chicago in the late 1960s.

23 Dec 2021

As overdose deaths soar, DEA-wary pharmacies shy from dispensing addiction medication

When Martin Njoku saw opioid addiction devastate his West Virginia community, he felt compelled to help. This was the place he'd called home for three decades, where he'd raised his two girls and turned his dream of owning a pharmacy into reality.

9 Nov 2021

Relaxing limits on take-home methadone did not lead to worse outcomes

Relaxing limits on take-home doses of methadone-;a medication used to treat opioid addiction-;does not appear to lead to worse treatment outcomes, according to a new study led by Washington State University researchers.

1 Nov 2021

Physical therapy associated with lower odds of long-term opioid use after total knee replacement

The world's most common form of arthritis, knee osteoarthritis, causes sufferers pain and hurts their quality of life.

27 Oct 2021

Women may be more vulnerable to drug addiction and addiction-like behaviors than men

The results of several new studies focusing on sex differences in pain and addiction indicate females could be more susceptible to drug addiction and addiction-like behaviors than males. Researchers also explored the role of lack of sleep on the likeliness to relapse. This is due in part to hormone differences in females and males. Data from the studies will be presented virtually October 19–22 at the American Physiological Society's seventh conference on New Trends in Sex and Gender Medicine.

20 Oct 2021

As holdout Missouri joins nation in monitoring opioid prescriptions, experts worry

Kathi Arbini said she felt elated when Missouri finally caught up to the other 49 states and approved a statewide prescription drug monitoring program this June in an attempt to curb opioid addiction.

26 Jul 2021

Study reflects shortcomings in how the U.S. handles care for people with opioid addiction

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.

23 Jul 2021

Sunflower peptide identified as a potential drug for treating abdominal pain

A naturally occurring peptide in sunflower seeds was synthetically optimised and has now been identified as a potential drug for treating abdominal pain or inflammation (in the gastrointestinal tract, abdominal area and/or internal organs).

28 Jun 2021

Clinical trial investigates effectiveness of delivering HIV, substance use care through mobile clinics

A clinical trial is underway in five U.S. cities to determine whether delivering integrated health services through mobile clinics can improve HIV and substance use outcomes among people with opioid use disorder who inject drugs.

9 Jun 2021

Most prescriptions for buprenorphine are written by a small number of health care providers

Most prescriptions for the drug buprenorphine, used to treat opioid use disorder, are written by a small number of the health care providers, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

2 Jun 2021

Opioids like ‘lean’ permeate hip-hop culture, but dangers are downplayed

Nykerrius Williams knows about the close relationship between hip-hop and opioid use. Williams, 27, an independent rapper from Gibsland, Louisiana, who goes by the name Young Nyke, took oxycodone pills for the first time when he was 16 and has continued patterns of misuse of those pills, as well as Lortabs, Xanax and codeine cough syrups, until recently. To him, it's part of the business.

28 May 2021