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Many pharmacies still do not stock buprenorphine despite eased prescribing rules

Faced with a worsening drug crisis, policymakers in recent years have made it much easier for doctors to prescribe the highly effective opioid addiction treatment buprenorphine.

2 Sep 2025

Medicaid expansion boosts access to opioid use disorder treatment

Medicaid plays a key role for giving people with opioid-use disorder access to treatment, according to a Rutgers Health study.

2 Sep 2025

Single-cell transcriptomics reveals new players in liver regeneration

The liver is remarkable for its ability to regenerate after injury, yet when this process fails, acute liver failure (ALF) carries devastating outcomes.

2 Sep 2025

Fentanyl abuse impairs cardiac cell function and contributes to heart rhythm defects

In recent years, fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, has been a main contributor to the opioid crisis.

28 Aug 2025

Polysubstance-involved opioid overdoses found to be prevalent among youth

Most research suggests that opioid overdoses involving multiple substances in the United States typically occur among people ages 25-54.

26 Aug 2025

AI predicts designer drug structures for improved detection

How does one identify something no one has a test for? Designer drugs replicate the effects of known, illicit drugs but evade law enforcement. The chemical structure variations that help these compounds avoid detection also make them unpredictable in the body - a quality that poses serious health consequences.

21 Aug 2025

Optum Rx invokes open meetings law to fight Kentucky counties on opioid suits

UnitedHealth Group's multibillion-dollar pharmacy benefit manager, Optum Rx, is suing five Kentucky counties in an attempt to force them out of national opioid litigation against the company.

20 Aug 2025

New molecule shows promise in treating acetaminophen-induced liver injury

Acetaminophen is one of the most common painkillers and is found in hundreds of different medications. While safe at recommended doses, acetaminophen overdose is the leading cause of acute liver injury in the U.S.

18 Aug 2025

Pregabalin raises heart failure risk in older adults compared to gabapentin, study finds

A large Medicare cohort study found that older adults prescribed pregabalin had a significantly higher risk of developing heart failure compared to those prescribed gabapentin. The elevated risk was most pronounced in individuals with pre-existing cardiovascular disease, especially women and White patients.

13 Aug 2025

Understanding opioid safety and overdose prevention for older adults

With increasing age, older adults are more likely to encounter health conditions and injuries that require opioid therapy for pain relief.

13 Aug 2025

Cherokee Nation Behavioral Health and Emory team up to prevent youth substance use

While overdose deaths in the U.S. sharply declined in 2024, they remain high. Almost 90,000 Americans died from drug overdoses between October 2023 and September 2024.

6 Aug 2025

As California’s behavioral health workforce buckles, help is years away

This spring, the Good News Rescue Mission, which runs the only emergency homeless shelter in Shasta County, received a game-changing $17.8 million state grant to build a 75-bed residential treatment facility in a region where thousands struggle with drug and alcohol addiction.

6 Aug 2025

New analgesic shows promise as opioid alternative

Opioids like morphine are widely used in medical practice due to their powerful pain-relieving effects. However, they carry the risk of serious adverse effects such as respiratory depression and drug dependence.

4 Aug 2025

Deadly opioid contaminants uncovered in Adelaide street drug supply

A synthetic opioid 1000 times more potent than morphine is infiltrating the street drug trade in Adelaide, Australia, sparking fears of a wave of overdoses that could be lethal.

1 Aug 2025

Copper may protect brain health after stroke

Research shows dietary copper intake boosts cognitive function in older adults, particularly those with a stroke history, highlighting its neuroprotective role.

1 Aug 2025

ANXA2 positive hepatocytes drive migration based repair in acute liver failure

Acute liver failure (ALF) represents a life-threatening condition marked by rapid deterioration of liver function, often necessitating urgent liver transplantation.

18 Jul 2025

New funding empowers Be Well Texas to combat opioid crisis

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has selected Be Well Texas, an initiative of the Be Well Institute on Substance Use and Related Disorders at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), to lead a major expansion of opioid use disorder and recovery support services across Texas.

17 Jul 2025

Exploring the changing intensity of opioid use

Illegal opioids can create substantial harms, but the extent of those harms depends on multiple factors, including the amount consumed.

16 Jul 2025

Nearly one-third of UK maternal deaths tied to involvement of children's social care services

The involvement of children's social care services was a common factor in nearly a third of UK maternal deaths occurring during, or within a year of, pregnancy between 2014 and 2022, finds research published in the open access journal BMJ Medicine.

12 Jul 2025

Who’s policing opioid settlement spending? A crowdsourced database might help

After years of legal battles, state attorneys general won billions of dollars in opioid settlements from drug companies accused of fueling the addiction crisis. They declared victory at press conferences, and some touted the deals during their gubernatorial campaigns.

11 Jul 2025