Opioid Drug News and Research

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Penwest confirms action on Oxymorphone patent application

Penwest Pharmaceuticals has confirmed that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has posted on its website an indication that a final rejection of Penwest's patent application claiming the sustained release formulations of Oxymorphone will be mailed.

15 Mar 2007

Morphine for euthanasia is a myth

Using morphine to end a person's life is a myth, argues a senior doctor in a letter to this week's British Medical Journal.

4 Mar 2007

Epidurals affect how successful breastfeeding will be

According to researchers in Australia having an epidural to relieve labour pains may affect how successful breastfeeding will be.

12 Dec 2006

Prescription drugs rather than heroin the drug of choice in Canada

A new study carried in seven Canadian cities, has revealed that prescription opioids, rather than heroin, are the biggest form of illicit opioid currently in use.

21 Nov 2006

Botox could fix your knees as well as your wrinkles

The preliminary results of a new study have found that Botox, better known for getting rid of wrinkles, significantly reduced severe pain from osteoarthritis of the knee and also improved the knee's function.

15 Nov 2006

New guidelines for nausea and vomiting

After five years of reviewing the latest research findings, a panel of experts led by a Duke University Medical Center anesthesiologist has developed new guidelines to help physicians reduce the occurrence of nausea and vomiting in patients after surgery.

16 Oct 2006

Treating battlefield injuries and pain in veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq

The August issue of Pain Medicine features two original research studies on treating pain in veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq.

15 Aug 2006

Reduced levels of antiinflammatory cytokines in patients with chronic widespread pain

Chronic widespread pain, a common medical condition, can be difficult to treat and is often associated with fatigue, poor sleep and depression.

26 Jul 2006

Increasing deaths from opioid analgesics in the United States

Trends analysis of drug poisoning deaths has helped explain a national epidemic of overdose deaths in the USA that began in the 1990s, concludes Leonard Paulozzi and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

24 Jul 2006

Increasing deaths from opioid analgesics in the United States

24 Jul 2006

Safety of popular painkiller Tylenol questioned

According to a new study the popular painkiller Tylenol may not be as safe to take as previously thought.

5 Jul 2006

Novel research points to promising relief target for chronic pain

By some accounts, chronic pain affects nearly 100 million Americans from such varied causes as arthritis, sciatica, cancer, diabetes. Most forms of pain result from identifiable causes which serve the "good" purpose in warning of a real physical problem that needs attention, or rest.

6 Jun 2006

Genetic analysis of opioid-induced hyperalgesia

In findings published in Nature Biotechnology (May 2006, vol. 24 No. 5), Roche scientists present a new method for analyzing the metabolism of a commonly prescribed drug.

10 May 2006

Study could lead to development of differential treatments for pain in men versus women

A study conducted by investigators at Georgia State University and the Atlanta-based Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) reports that anatomical and functional differences in the brain may explain sex differences in the experience of pain and in the effects of certain drugs on pain.

19 Apr 2006

Buprenorphine is more effective than clonidine at helping people withdraw from opioids

It probably has similar effect as methadone, but withdrawal symptoms may resolve more quickly with buprenorphine.

18 Apr 2006

Researchers identify potential targets for more effective analgesic drugs with potentially fewer side effects

Studying mice, pain researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified two key components in the pain cascade that may provide targets for more effective analgesic drugs with potentially fewer side effects

6 Apr 2006

UV light has "feel-good" effects that may be similar to those of some addictive drugs

Frequent users of tanning beds may be getting more out of the experience than darker skin, according to researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

3 Apr 2006

High narcotic use among headache sufferers

A new analysis of nearly 6.2 million insured patients shows that migraine was under diagnosed and often untreated.

9 Mar 2006

Topical anaesthesia and morphine effective in treating procedural pain in newborn infants

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have found that intravenous morphine used alone or with a topical anaesthetic (tetracaine) effectively reduced levels of pain in newborn infants undergoing insertion of central venous catheters (central lines).

17 Feb 2006

More training needed to ensure accuracy of urine drug tests

In a survey of primary care physicians, most reported not using proper techniques when collecting urine samples for drug tests on adolescents and were often unaware of the tests' limitations, according to an article in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

9 Feb 2006