Opioids News and Research

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An opioid is a chemical that works by binding to opioid receptors, which are found principally in the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract. The receptors in these two organ systems mediate both the beneficial effects and the side effects of opioids.

What is the effect of preferred music on pain thresholds?

This study evaluated the effect of preferred music, as opposed to disliked music, on the perception of pain and pain tolerance in healthy volunteers.

3 Feb 2023

Some addiction treatment centers turn big profits by scaling back care

Near the end of his scheduled three-month stay at a rehab center outside Austin, Texas, Daniel McKegney was forced to tell his father in North Carolina that he needed more time and more money, he recently recalled.

31 Jan 2023

Buprenorphine-involved overdose deaths did not increase after implementation of prescribing flexibilities

The proportion of opioid overdose deaths involving buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder, did not increase in the months after prescribing flexibilities were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study.

20 Jan 2023

Research provides a comprehensive structural framework to design safer pain-relieving drugs

In the continuing effort to improve upon opioid pain relievers, American and Chinese scientists used cryoEM technology to solve the detailed structures of the entire family of opioid receptors bound to their naturally occurring peptides.

18 Jan 2023

Study: Almost a third of patients with chronic pain use cannabis

As more U.S. states legalize cannabis (also known as marijuana) for medical and recreational use, increasing numbers of people are experimenting with it for pain relief. According to a new study published in JAMA Network Open, almost a third of patients with chronic pain reported using cannabis to manage it.

6 Jan 2023

Low-cost intervention can make a difference to America's deadly overdose epidemic

There are no simple solutions to America's deadly overdose epidemic, which costs 100,000 lives each year and is erasing gains in life expectancy.

6 Jan 2023

Postoperative restrictive opioid protocols reduce long-term opioid use

Research at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center shows that putting a three-day limit on opioid prescriptions to treat surgical pain after hospital discharge reduces the number of patients who become chronic opioid users without compromising pain relief or recovery.

5 Jan 2023

NY docs are now required to prescribe naloxone to some patients on opioid painkillers

Without opioid painkillers to dull the ache in his knees and other joints, Arnold Wilson wouldn't be able to walk half a block. The 63-year-old former New York City nurse has crippling arthritis for which he takes OxyContin twice a day and oxycodone when he needs additional relief.

5 Jan 2023

Targeting Piezo2 could provide new avenue for treating chronic pain related to gastrointestinal disorders

Targeting a receptor responsible for our sense of touch and temperature, which researchers have now found to be present in our colon, could provide a new avenue for treating chronic pain associated with gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome.

23 Dec 2022

Brief roundup of research done by experts at UCLA Health

Below is a brief roundup of news and story ideas from the experts at UCLA Health.

21 Dec 2022

HIV outbreak persists as officials push back against containment efforts

Brooke Parker has spent the past two years combing riverside homeless encampments, abandoned houses, and less traveled roads to help contain a lingering HIV outbreak that has disproportionately affected those who live on society's margins.

19 Dec 2022

New chemical compound shows promise to reverse effects of potentially deadly drugs

Drug overdoses in the United States have risen sharply in the last two decades. Nearly 92,000 people died from overdoses of illegal drugs and prescription opioids in 2020-;more than five times the number of deaths in the year 2000-;and synthetic opioids like fentanyl are one of the main culprits.

16 Dec 2022

New project on ultrasound device for treatment of neuropathic pain to receive NIH funding

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine, in collaboration with Albany Medical College in New York, are among seven institutions nationwide selected to receive funding from the National Institutes of Health for their innovative pilot projects to enable new medical devices to diagnose and treat both acute and chronic disorders from neuropathic pain to mental illness.

15 Dec 2022

People with cocaine- and opioid-use disorders infected with COVID-19 have greater risk of endocarditis

People diagnosed with cocaine- and opioid-use disorders are more susceptible to developing endocarditis, a condition that damages the lining of the heart valves and chambers, according to research from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health.

14 Dec 2022

Study shows benefits of decreasing opioid refills for hip and knee arthroplasty patients

Opioids are commonly prescribed to patients that are discharged after a total knee and hip arthroplasty. Patients are typically given larger prescriptions of opioids that can result in an excess of the medication in their home after recovery is over.

14 Dec 2022

Study finds spike in endocarditis among patients with cocaine or opioid use disorder from 2011 to 2022

The incidence rate of infective endocarditis - a rare but often fatal inflammation of the heart valves - among patients with cocaine use disorder or opioid use disorder increased from 2011 to 2022, with the steepest increase occurring from 2021 to 2022, a new study reports.

13 Dec 2022

In rural America, deadly costs of opioids outweigh the dollars tagged to address them

Tim Buck knows by heart how many people died from drug overdoses in his North Carolina county last year: 10. The year before it was 12 — an all-time high.

12 Dec 2022

Concrete steps for screening, detection and treatment of adolescent substance use

Despite advances in technology and availability, one of the best ways for parents and health care providers to prevent or help stop adolescent substance use is still an old-fashioned conversation, according to a new Viewpoint published in the November issue of The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.

9 Dec 2022

Drug overdose deaths reach a record high among pregnant and postpartum women, study reveals

Drug overdose deaths among pregnant and postpartum women increased more than 180 percent in the past five years, according to a new study conducted at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

6 Dec 2022

Study examines whether cortisone-like medicine can reduce pain after total knee arthroplasty

Results from a study by Henry Ford Health orthopedic researchers is the latest of several high-powered studies geared toward effectively managing pain and decreasing opioids use after total knee replacement surgery.

5 Dec 2022