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Non-psychoactive cannabis ingredient could reduce risk of relapse among recovering addicts

A preclinical study in rats has shown that there might be value in using a non-psychoactive and non-addictive ingredient of the Cannabis sativa plant to reduce the risk of relapse among recovering drug and alcohol addicts.

23 Mar 2018

Back pain being mismanaged globally

According to a panel of international health experts, back pain is being grossly mismanaged globally. This could be both by ineffective treatments as well as treatment with harmful methods.

23 Mar 2018

Graphic: Opioid painkiller is top prescription in 11 states

Americans fill about 4.5 billion prescriptions each year, at a cost of more than $323 billion. But what are we actually buying? In 11 states, the top prescriptions are opioid pain pills that are mixtures of acetaminophen and hydrocodone (brand names Vicodin and Norco), according to new data from GoodRx, an online prescription cost service.

22 Mar 2018

FDA could curb or ban tobacco in menthol or fruit flavoured cigarettes soon

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is looking deeper at the tobacco levels in the flavoured tobacco products closely. These menthol or fruit flavoured cigarettes are more appealing to young people who take up smoking, they find. These have also escaped the regulations regarding tobacco usage for years now.

20 Mar 2018

Congress tackles the opioid epidemic. But how much will it help?

The nation's opioid epidemic has been called today's version of the 1980s AIDS crisis. In a speech Monday, President Donald Trump pushed for a tougher federal response, emphasizing a tough-on-crime approach for drug dealers and more funding for treatment.

20 Mar 2018

The other opioid crisis: Hospital shortages lead to patient pain, medical errors

Even as opioids flood American communities and fuel widespread addiction, hospitals are facing a dangerous shortage of the powerful painkillers needed by patients in acute pain, according to doctors, pharmacists and a coalition of health groups.

16 Mar 2018

FDA moves to cut nicotine in cigarettes, helping smokers kick habit

Cigarettes would contain less addictive nicotine — making them less attractive to smokers — under an "unprecedented" plan the Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday.

15 Mar 2018

New study shows connection between coffee and cannabis

It's well known that a morning cup of joe jolts you awake. But scientists have discovered coffee affects your metabolism in dozens of other ways, including your metabolism of steroids and the neurotransmitters typically linked to cannabis, reports a new study from Northwestern Medicine.

15 Mar 2018

New study provides clues about how ADHD drugs affect healthy brains

A new study shows that healthy people who take attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs experience a surge in the neurotransmitter glutamate in key parts of the brain. And that increase in glutamate is associated with subsequent changes in positive emotion.

14 Mar 2018

Opioid maker funds efforts to fight addiction: Is it ‘blood money’ or charity?

A program to give naloxone overdose-antidote kits and training to front-line officers. Funding for pill disposal boxes in pharmacies, clinics and police stations across North Carolina. A radio campaign in Connecticut warning of the dangers of opioid abuse. A new medicine to treat opioid-induced constipation.

14 Mar 2018

Study highlights divergent molecular mechanisms contributing to depression in men and women

Men and women with major depressive disorder have opposite changes in the expression of the same genes, according to a new postmortem brain study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada.

14 Mar 2018

Medicaid is rural America’s financial midwife

Brianna Foster, 23, lives minutes away from Genesis Hospital, the main source of health care and the only hospital with maternity services in southeastern Ohio's rural Muskingum County.

12 Mar 2018

Health care revamped at L.A. county jails

Michael Callahan, an outgoing 43-year-old carpenter, landed in a Los Angeles County jail last September because of what he said were "bad decisions and selling drugs."

8 Mar 2018

Researchers seek to discover role of filter ventilation on addictive potential of cigarettes

Would banning ventilated filters on cigarettes protect public health? Scientists from multiple institutions, including a group of addiction neuroscience researchers from the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, are gathering evidence under funding from the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute to potentially inform a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision about whether to recommend design changes to filtered cigarettes.

7 Mar 2018

Jury’s in: Opioids are not better than other medicines for chronic pain

A few years ago, Renea Molden’s doctors told her they wanted to take her off her opioid pills. It did not sound like good idea to her.

6 Mar 2018

Researchers aim to to better predict future chronic opioid therapy in hospital patients

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus are working to develop statistical models to better predict which patients will be prescribed opioid medications long-term following discharge from a hospital stay.

6 Mar 2018

CMS issues split decision on Arkansas Medicaid waiver

The Trump administration on Monday approved Arkansas' request for a Medicaid work requirement but deferred a decision on the state's request to roll back its Medicaid expansion that has added 300,000 adults to the program.

5 Mar 2018

While talk about opioids continues in DC, addiction treatment is in peril in states

Opioids were on the White House agenda Thursday — President Trump convened a summit with members of his administration about the crisis. And Congress authorized funds for the opioid crisis in its recent budget deal — but those dollars aren’t flowing yet, and states say they are struggling to meet the need for treatment.

5 Mar 2018

FDA reminds consumers to be wary of unapproved flu products

As part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ongoing efforts to protect consumers from health fraud, the agency is reminding consumers to be wary of unapproved products claiming to prevent, treat or cure influenza, or flu.

5 Mar 2018

New Canadian guideline lays out optimal strategies for treatment of opioid addiction

A new Canadian guideline for managing opioid use disorders lays out the optimal strategies for the treatment of opioid addiction, including recommending opioid agonist treatment with buprenorphine-naloxone as the preferred first-line treatment.

5 Mar 2018