Fentanyl News and Research

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Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opiate analgesic similar to but more potent than morphine. It is typically used to treat patients with severe pain, or to manage pain after surgery. It is also sometimes used to treat people with chronic pain who are physically tolerant to opiates. It is a schedule II prescription drug.

NIH establishes research network to test harm reduction strategies in community settings

To address the overdose crisis in the United States, the National Institutes of Health has established a research network that will test harm reduction strategies in different community settings to inform efforts to help save lives.

16 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

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

Self-service vending machine filled with harm reduction supplies helps prevent overdoses

More than 107,000 Americans died from drug overdose in 2021, highlighting the need for evidence-based interventions.

6 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

Addiction treatment proponents urge rural clinicians to pitch in by prescribing medication

Andrea Storjohann is glad to see that she's becoming less of a rarity in rural America.

1 Dec 2022

Schools, sheriffs, and syringes: State plans vary for spending $26B in opioid settlement funds

With more than 200 Americans still dying of drug overdoses each day, states are beginning the high-stakes task of deciding how to spend billions of dollars in settlement funds from opioid manufacturers and distributors.

22 Nov 2022

After election win, California’s AG turns to investigating hospital algorithms for racial bias

California Attorney General Rob Bonta sailed to victory in the Nov. 8 election, riding his progressive record on reproductive rights, gun control, and social justice reform.

21 Nov 2022

Early mobility contributes to higher survival rates for COVID-19 patients receiving ECMO

A Texas cardiac subspecialty hospital with seven years of experience with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) changed its treatment paradigm during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that progressive mobility and a more aggressive application of rehabilitation therapies contributed to significantly higher survival rates for its patients with COVID-19 receiving ECMO.

15 Nov 2022

New fentanyl vaccine could prevent deadly opioid from entering the brain

A research team led by the University of Houston has developed a vaccine targeting the dangerous synthetic opioid fentanyl that could block its ability to enter the brain, thus eliminating the drug's "high."

14 Nov 2022

Fentanyl in high school: A Texas community grapples with the reach of the deadly opioid

The hallways of Lehman High School looked like any other on a recent fall day. Its 2,100 students talked and laughed as they hurried to their next classes, moving past walls covered with flyers that advertised homecoming events, clubs, and football games.

10 Nov 2022

UC researchers receive NIH grant to study how alcohol, fentanyl affect HIV medications

The United States has set a goal of reducing the number of new HIV infections by 75% by 2025 and by at least 90% by 2030, mirroring the United Nations' initiative to end the AIDS epidemic as a global health threat by 2030.

2 Nov 2022

Using a nanotechnology-packed bubble to detect SARS-CoV-2 virus

Scientists have shown that they can detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the air by using a nanotechnology-packed bubble that spills its chemical contents like a broken piñata when encountering the virus.

25 Oct 2022

Two cases of acute abdominal pain in patients with COVID-19 in their second week of illness

Researchers described two cases of acute pain in the abdomen of patients with COVID-19.

17 Oct 2022

Ophthalmologists may be able to safely cut back on having anesthesiologists during cataract surgery

Ophthalmologists may be able to safely cut back on having anesthesiologists or nurse anesthetists routinely at bedside during cataract surgery, which accounts for more than two million surgeries per year in the U.S., according to a study publishing Oct. 3 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

3 Oct 2022

At this recovery center, police cope with the mental health costs of the job

Ken Beyer can't think of a day in the past few months when his phone didn't flutter with calls, text messages, and emails from a police department, a sheriff's office, or a fire station seeking help for an employee.

27 Sep 2022

Artificial intelligence tools speed up the process of identifying people who inject drugs

An automated process that combines natural language processing and machine learning identified people who inject drugs (PWID) in electronic health records more quickly and accurately than current methods that rely on manual record reviews.

22 Sep 2022

Doctors rush to use Supreme Court ruling to escape opioid charges

Dr. Nelson Onaro conceded last summer that he'd written illegal prescriptions, although he said he was thinking only of his patients. From a tiny, brick clinic in Oklahoma, he doled out hundreds of opioid pills and dozens of fentanyl patches with no legitimate medical purpose.

19 Sep 2022

Study finds spike in the "Years of Life Lost" among adolescents during COVID-19 pandemic

The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a 113% increase in the "Years of Life Lost" among adolescents and young people in the United States due to unintentional drug overdose, according to researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine.

13 Sep 2022