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Medical providers often miss the complex social needs of frequent ED users, say researchers

Frequent visitors to emergency departments often have complex social needs, such as homelessness, substance abuse, unemployment and mental illness, yet both medical providers and policy makers tend to focus on their immediate or recent medical issues without examining such other factors.

6 Nov 2019

Pioneering brain chip to fight opioid addiction: first US clinical test

Opioid addiction is among the biggest medical conditions troubling the U.S. today, and is far from reaching a solution. In 2017, it claimed almost 50 deaths per 100,000 in the state of West Virginia – the highest drug-overdose-related death rate in the US. Today, however, there is a gleam of hope from a new trial of an old technology to help fight this battle – a brain-embedded chip to counter opioid-induced cravings in treatment-refractory patients.

6 Nov 2019

Wake Forest Baptist receives $6 million to study non-pharmaceutical cancer pain management

For many people who've had cancer, severe pain can persist even after treatment ends.

5 Nov 2019

First-in-the-U.S. clinical trial uses deep brain stimulation to tackle opioid addiction

The West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute and WVU Medicine, today (Nov. 5) announced the launch of a first-in-the-U.S. clinical trial using deep brain stimulation for patients suffering from treatment-resistant opioid use disorder.

5 Nov 2019

Brain imaging shows links between self control and alcohol dependence

Excessive and harmful drinking is a key feature of an alcohol use disorder. The causes of substance use disorders are complex, but deficiences in certain aspects of self-control have been implicated.

5 Nov 2019

Mint flavored e-cigarettes found to be popular among U.S. teens

A new USC study shows that mint was the most popular flavor of e-cigarettes used by U.S. teens in 2019, a finding that could impact proposed federal regulations intended to rein in soaring e-cig use among youth.

5 Nov 2019

Researchers successfully treat pain using nanoparticles to deliver a non-opioid medication

The use of nanoparticles to deliver a drug into specific nerve cells has resulted in significantly improved pain relief.

5 Nov 2019

Study sheds light on unhealthy hyper-palatable foods

Research has devised specific parameters that could help to classify certain foods as “hyper-palatable”.

5 Nov 2019

Nanoparticle drug delivery enhances and prolongs pain relief in animal models

An international team of researchers has used nanoparticles to deliver a drug- one that previously failed in clinical trials for pain- into specific compartments of nerve cells, dramatically increasing its ability to treat pain in mice and rats.

4 Nov 2019

Clinical trial tests impact of actual and virtual nature on cancer patients

Researchers at Houston Methodist Cancer Center are exploring whether exposure to nature, through either a live garden or virtual reality, can alleviate pain and distress in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, possibly reducing the need for prescription narcotics.

4 Nov 2019

Men can also get breast cancer

Roland Taylor, 69, has faced considerable struggles in life, at times battling homelessness and addiction. Two years ago, he felt a lump in his chest, but ignored it until he discovered that it had grown.

31 Oct 2019

Optometrists reduce opioid prescription without increasing pain

Optometrists at the University of Michigan have introduced a new approach to prescribing opioids in an effort to help curb the nation’s opioid epidemic.

31 Oct 2019

Portage, Geauga and Lake counties to get new drug prevention infrastructures

Kent State University's College of Public Health is teaming up with the Department of Computer Science to develop and implement drug prevention infrastructure in Portage, Geauga and Lake counties.

30 Oct 2019

Diabetes drug abolishes characteristic signs of nicotine withdrawal in mice

A drug commonly used to treat Type II diabetes abolishes the characteristic signs of nicotine withdrawal in rats and mice, according to new research published in JNeurosci. The finding may offer an important new strategy in the battle to quit smoking.

From Society for Neuroscience 30 Oct 2019

New online course launched to help providers understand every facet of opioid crisis

Even if they never write a single prescription for an opioid painkiller, or care for someone who has overdosed on heroin or fentanyl, people who work in every area of American healthcare need to understand how the opioid epidemic is affecting their patients, their families and their communities, and how to prevent new cases of opioid addiction.

30 Oct 2019

Obesity has limited behavioral overlap with addiction, research finds

A large analysis of personality studies has found that people with obesity behave somewhat like people with addictions to alcohol or drugs. But obesity is also a complex condition that cannot be fully explained by the addiction model.

29 Oct 2019

Behavioral economic analysis used to predict alcohol problems among heavy-drinking college students

Most people drink less in situations where there are constraints on alcohol use. The sensitivity of alcohol use to the constraint of drink price can be assessed using an 'alcohol purchase task', whereby individuals specify how many drinks they would buy in one drinking episode across a range of prices.

29 Oct 2019