Opioid Addiction News and Research

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Study: Dozens of counties in the U.S. are at highest risk for opioid deaths

Dozens of counties in the Midwest and South are at the highest risk for opioid deaths in the United States, say University of Michigan researchers.

29 Jun 2019

Opioids are major cause of pregnancy-related deaths in Utah

Stephanie lay in the Salt Lake County jail bunk bed and thought, "Everything would be better if I just died."

28 Jun 2019

Expanding role of registered nurses in primary care

Nurse-researchers at South Dakota State University are helping rural clinics more fully utilize registered nurses in primary care and have expanded the nursing curriculum to better prepare students to deliver that care.

27 Jun 2019

Surgeons’ opioid-prescribing habits hard to kick

As opioid addiction and deadly overdoses escalated into an epidemic across the U.S., thousands of surgeons continued to hand out far more pills than needed for postoperative pain relief, according to a KHN-Johns Hopkins analysis of Medicare data.

21 Jun 2019

Legal promise of equal mental health treatment often falls short

Amanda Bacon's eating disorder was growing worse. She had lost 60% of her body weight and was consuming about 100 calories a day.

7 Jun 2019

Alzheimer's therapy may be effective in treating individuals addicted to opioids

Clinical trial results reveal that a medication used to treat Alzheimer's disease may also be an effective therapy for individuals addicted to opioids. The findings are published in The American Journal on Addictions.

6 Jun 2019

Metabolite of kratom alkaloid could be responsible for its pain relief benefits

Kratom is a Southeast Asian tree with a long history of use in traditional medicine.

30 May 2019

Oklahoma’s ‘precedent-setting’ suit puts opioid drugmakers on trial

All eyes will be on Oklahoma this week when the first case in a flood of litigation against opioid drug manufacturers begins Tuesday.

28 May 2019

Use of buprenorphine to treat opioid addiction proliferates in California

Buprenorphine, a relative newcomer in the treatment of opioid addiction, is growing in popularity among California doctors as regulatory changes, physician training and other initiatives make the medication more widely accessible.

24 May 2019

New pain management program sends 92% cancer surgery patients home with no opioids

A specialized pain management program for patients who underwent robotic surgery for urologic cancers resulted in just eight percent going home with narcotics after discharge, compared to 100 percent who would have received them without this enhanced recovery protocol.

23 May 2019

Cannabis could help people with opioid addiction

A new study has shown that cannabidiol or CBD, found in cannabis, could help people with opioid use disorder or addiction. CBD can help reduce the symptoms of craving among addicts when on withdrawal from the opioid and also reduce the accompanying anxiety and restlessness write the authors of the study.

22 May 2019

Mindfulness may reduce depression symptoms for mothers with opioid use disorder

Mothers with opioid use disorder face many challenges as they work towards a more stable life for themselves and their children, depression not least among them.

21 May 2019

Could deep brain stimulation help resolve the opioid epidemic?

Researchers have developed an implant that has shown promise for reducing addiction rates. However, there are major ethical and financial concerns, which we have tried to cover in this news story.

9 May 2019

Addiction medicine mostly prescribed to whites, even as opioid deaths rose among blacks

White drug users addicted to heroin, fentanyl and other opioids have had near-exclusive access to buprenorphine, a drug that curbs the craving for opioids and reduces the chance of a fatal overdose.

8 May 2019

Meth vs. opioids: America has two drug epidemics, but focuses on one

Kim had been wine tasting with a friend in Sonoma, Calif. They got into an argument in the car that night and Kim thought someone was following them. She was utterly convinced. And she had to get away.

7 May 2019

Research on Reddit identifies risks associated with unproven treatments for opioid addiction

Using advanced machine-learning techniques, Georgia Tech researchers have examined nearly 1.5 million Reddit posts to identify risks associated with several of the most common alternative - and unproven - "treatments" for opioid addiction.

2 May 2019

Cancer patients and those with anemia should not be denied opioids, says CDC

The U.S. CDC has issued a letter clarifying that people suffering from severe pain caused by cancer or sickle-cell anemia should not be denied prescriptions for opioid pain-killers.

11 Apr 2019

Penn State-led project focuses on opioid addiction treatment in teens

Substance use disorders continue to rise at alarming rates among adolescents, with opioid abuse contributing to this significant public health problem.

10 Apr 2019

Bringing Maine researchers together to identify solutions to opioid epidemic in Maine

The MDI Biological Laboratory and the University of New England are bringing Maine researchers together to discuss how they can collaborate to identify solutions to the opioid epidemic in Maine.

10 Apr 2019