Hydrocodone News and Research

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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

Analysis reveals drop in long-term opioid use among military veterans

A new study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, published by Springer, shows that opioid prescribing has dropped after a peak in 2012. Lead author Katherine Hadlandsmyth of the Iowa City VA Healthcare System and the University of Iowa in the US further noted that the decline was mostly due to decreases in long-term opioid prescribing, which carries much greater risk for harmful side effects, addiction and overdose, relative to short-term prescribing.

30 Jan 2018

Study: Doctors may prescribe double the number of opioids than what patient needs after hysterectomy

Doctors may be prescribing nearly twice the number of opioids than what the average patient needs after a hysterectomy, a new study suggests.

4 Dec 2017

Doctors make big money testing urine for drugs, then ignore abnormal results

In April 2014, state and federal drug agents raided Jeffrey Campbell's medical clinic in Jeffersonville, Ind. Police cars blocked the parking lot as bewildered patients scattered and the agents carted off boxes of records from the doctor's office.

29 Nov 2017

Researchers find link between negative emotions and higher opioid use in people with sickle cell disease

In a small study using data from daily electronic patient diaries, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have found a link between negative emotions, such as sadness and anxiety, and higher opioid use in people with sickle cell disease whose pain levels were self-reported as relatively low.

27 Nov 2017

One in 20 children still receiving codeine to treat pain despite warning from federal regulators

A new study shows as many as one in 20 children were still receiving codeine to treat pain after tonsil and adenoid surgery, two years after federal regulators warned doctors that prescribing the opioid to kids after the routine surgeries could be fatal.

16 Nov 2017

FDA issues warning against use of herbal medicine Kratom

The United States Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has issued a public notice yesterday, 14th November 2017, regarding the risks associated with herbal drug Kratom. Kratom has been used for a long time and still finds numerous users.

14 Nov 2017

Study: More than 10% of cancer patients continue to take opioids after surgery

More than two million people in the United States are dependent on prescription opioid pain relievers, a number that continues to grow as the rate of opioid prescriptions has skyrocketed in the last 25 years.

1 Nov 2017

Sanford Health to evaluate effectiveness of non-opioid medications

Sanford Health is one of three sites in the U.S. to launch a study to determine if non-opioid medications are as effective in managing pain after carpal-tunnel surgery.

30 Oct 2017

Researchers use machine learning to identify illegal selling of opioids on Twitter

Using advanced machine learning, a cross disciplinary team of University of California San Diego researchers developed technology that mined Twitter to identify entities illegally selling prescription opioids online.

25 Oct 2017

Bariatric surgical patients may be vulnerable to opioid dependence

Nearly 9 percent of bariatric surgical patients--or about one in 12--who did not take opioid pain medications until their weight-loss operation, or the month before it, report that they are still using prescription opioids one year postoperatively, according to new research findings.

24 Oct 2017

Opioid-free anesthesia reduces postoperative nausea, study finds

Opioid-free general anesthesia is safe, effective and dramatically decreases postoperative nausea, according to a single-center study of more than 1,000 patients being presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2017 annual meeting.

24 Oct 2017

New online tool offers opioid prescribing recommendations after surgery

How many prescription pain pills should a patient receive after breast cancer surgery? Or a hernia repair? Or a gallbladder removal?

16 Oct 2017

Researchers use zebrafish animal model to explore drug-seeking behavior

As the opioid crisis escalates, the science behind addiction remains poorly understood. To address this need, researchers at University of Utah Health devised a system that allowed zebrafish, a small tropical fish, to self-administer doses of hydrocodone, an opioid commonly prescribed to people for pain.

26 Aug 2017

FDA evaluating prescription opioid medications approved to treat cough in children

The United States Food and Drugs Administration (US FDA) says that parents need to be aware of the information regarding treatment of symptoms of cough and cold in their children in order to ensure their health and safety.

22 Aug 2017

Dying at home in an opioid crisis: Hospices grapple with stolen meds

Nothing seemed to help the patient — and hospice staff didn't know why. They sent home more painkillers for weeks. But the elderly woman, who had severe dementia and incurable breast cancer, kept calling out in pain.

22 Aug 2017

Study finds sevenfold rise in prescription opioid use among fatally injured drivers

The percentage of fatally injured drivers who tested positive for prescription opioids rose sevenfold from 1 percent in 1995 to over 7 percent in 2015, according to a new study at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The findings appear online in the American Journal of Public Health.

26 Jul 2017

Managing stress, improving pain coping strategies may minimize need for opioids after surgery

Helping patients to better manage stress and improve coping strategies related to pain may minimize the need for opioids following ankle fracture surgery, according to new research appearing in the July 2017 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

6 Jul 2017

Study finds substantial use of opioids among older rheumatoid arthritis patients

A new analysis indicates that the use of opioid pain medications in older US rheumatoid arthritis patients peaked in 2010 and is now declining slightly. By 2014, 41% of rheumatoid arthritis patients were regular opioid users.

21 Jun 2017

Opioid use gradually increases few years after bariatric surgery, study shows

While the proportion of adults with severe obesity using prescription opioids initially declines in the months after bariatric surgery, it increases within a matter of years, eventually surpassing pre-surgery rates of patients using the potentially addictive pain medications, according to new research from a National Institutes of Health -funded multicenter study led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

6 Jun 2017