OxyContin News and Research

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Abuse of prescription drugs

Increasingly, drug abusers are getting their next fix from their medicine cabinets, instead of from drug dealers.

26 Jun 2007

AMPAKINE drugs may provide protection from drug-induced respiratory depression

Drug-induced respiratory depression is a life-threatening condition caused by analgesic, hypnotic, and anesthesia medications.

5 Jun 2007

FDA announces results of investigation into illegal promotion of OxyContin

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI) has announced that The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc. has agreed to pay more than $700 million to resolve criminal charges and civil liabilities in connection with several illegal schemes to promote, market and sell OxyContin, a powerful prescription pain reliever that the company produces.

11 May 2007

First large-scale study to assess treatment for prescription drug addiction

UCSF is launching a new study to evaluate treatments for addiction to prescription painkillers and has openings for patients to enroll.

19 Apr 2007

Warning about the indiscriminate use of diet drugs

The United Nations (UN) has issued a warning about the rise in a number of countries of the use of diet drugs to lose weight.

1 Mar 2007

Lawsuit filed against federal government over medical cannabis misinformation

The patients advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California demanding that the federal government cease issuing misinformation on medical cannabis and correct the information it has released.

21 Feb 2007

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

Purdue Pharma announces agreement to end OxyContin patent lawsuit with Teva Pharmaceuticals

Purdue Pharma L.P. of Stamford, Connecticut and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. of North Wales, Pennsylvania have agreed to end their lawsuit concerning certain Purdue Pharma patents on OxyContin (oxycodone HCl controlled-release) Tablets.

30 Aug 2006

Getting high on mothballs lands teens in hospital

Doctors were mystified when an 18-year-old French woman appeared at a hospital with scaly skin on her legs and hands, and was unsteady and mentally sluggish.

30 Jul 2006

Evaluation of the efficacy of buprenorphine hydrochloride and clonidine hydrochloride, in detoxification of opioid-dependent teenagers

In a comparison of two drugs prescribed to treat teenagers dependent on heroin and other opioids, the drug buprenorphine was more effective, especially in treatment retention, according to a study in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

4 Oct 2005

Prescription drug abuse in the USA exceeds 15 million

A recently released report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University suggests between 1992 and 2003, more Americans were abusing controlled prescription drugs than cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants and heroin put together.

11 Jul 2005

Narcotic medications can safely and effectively ease severe, chronic pain in older people

Narcotic medications can safely and effectively ease severe, chronic pain in older people with little risk that these patients will seek ever-increasing doses, UCSF medical scientists have found. Younger patients, however, are likely to want to rapidly increase their medication dose, the researchers found, posing serious potential health consequences.

23 May 2005

Narcotic medications can safely and effectively ease severe, chronic pain in older people

Narcotic medications can safely and effectively ease severe, chronic pain in older people with little risk that these patients will seek ever-increasing doses, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) medical scientists have found. Younger patients, however, are likely to want to rapidly increase their medication dose, the researchers found, posing serious potential health consequences.

20 May 2005

Teens get high on painkillers

The latest study, by a group called the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, has found that approximately one in five teenagers have tried to get high by using prescription painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin which they often find in their parents' medicine cabinets.

23 Apr 2005

Teen concerns about inhalants and painkiller use

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, results from the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey indicate an almost 7 percent decline of any illicit drug use in the past month by 8th, 10th, and 12th graders combined from 2003 to 2004.

21 Dec 2004