Methadone News and Research

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New insight from patients on what helps or hinders medication-assisted opioid use disorder treatment

Patients would be more willing to enter medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder if existing stigmas were reduced and more accessible payment support was readily available, a West Virginia University study finds.

6 Jun 2023

California confronts the threat of ‘tranq’ as overdose crisis rages

When the city's medical examiner announced in February that four people who had recently died of overdoses had the animal sedative xylazine in their systems, public health workers across the state sprang into action.

5 Jun 2023

California’s fentanyl problem is getting worse

California has allocated more than $1 billion in recent years to combat its opioid crisis. Much of the money has been used to distribute fentanyl test strips and the overdose reversal drug naloxone, as well as deliver medical care to people who are homeless.

23 May 2023

California confronts overdose epidemic among former prison inmates

Michael Vera walked into a bedroom of a residential drug treatment program in Los Angeles in March to find its occupant slumped over on his bed and struggling to breathe, a homemade straw on the floor beside him and tinfoil with what appeared to be drug residue under his body.

10 May 2023

Insomnia drug shows potential as an effective treatment for opioid use disorder

The insomnia drug suvorexant (Belsomra) might be an effective treatment for opioid use disorder, according to a preclinical study from Scripps Research.

27 Apr 2023

Placebo in addition to methadone shown to be feasible treatment for opioid use disorder

There were more than 100,000 reported deaths from opioid overdoses in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

12 Apr 2023

Buprenorphine can be safely started in the ER without triggering withdrawal even for people using stronger opioids

Results from a multi-site clinical trial supported by the National Institutes of Health showed that less than 1% of people with opioid use disorder whose drug use includes fentanyl experienced withdrawal when starting buprenorphine in the emergency department.

30 Mar 2023

End of covid emergency will usher in changes across the US health system

The Biden administration's decision to end the covid-19 public health emergency in May will institute sweeping changes across the health care system that go far beyond many people having to pay more for covid tests.

22 Mar 2023

Smoking cessation drug may help people stop using cocaine while in treatment for OUD

For some people receiving methadone for treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD), the co-use of opioids and stimulants such as cocaine is an issue.

15 Mar 2023

New CDC opioid guidelines: Too little, too late for chronic pain patients?

Jessica Layman estimates she has called more than 150 doctors in the past few years in her search for someone to prescribe opioids for her chronic pain.

15 Mar 2023

As opioids mixed with animal tranquilizers arrive in Kensington, so do alarming health challenges

Many people living on the streets in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood — the largest open-air drug market on the East Coast — are in full-blown addiction, openly snorting, smoking, or injecting illicit drugs, hunched over crates or on stoops. Syringes litter sidewalks, and the stench of urine fouls the air.

15 Feb 2023

Buprenorphine-involved overdose deaths did not increase after implementation of prescribing flexibilities

The proportion of opioid overdose deaths involving buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder, did not increase in the months after prescribing flexibilities were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study.

20 Jan 2023

Combination therapy could be a safe choice for oral opioid maintenance treatment during pregnancy

Current guidelines recommend that pregnant women with opioid use disorder be prescribed either methadone or buprenorphine, but these drugs too have significant potential for abuse.

11 Jan 2023

NY docs are now required to prescribe naloxone to some patients on opioid painkillers

Without opioid painkillers to dull the ache in his knees and other joints, Arnold Wilson wouldn't be able to walk half a block. The 63-year-old former New York City nurse has crippling arthritis for which he takes OxyContin twice a day and oxycodone when he needs additional relief.

5 Jan 2023

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

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

Hospitals have been slow to bring on addiction specialists

In December, Marie, who lives in coastal Swampscott, Massachusetts, began having trouble breathing. Three days after Christmas, she woke up gasping for air and dialed 911.

11 Oct 2022

New long-term opioid use associated with a heightened risk of death, study finds

New long term use of opioids to quell pain after lung cancer surgery is linked to a 40% heightened risk of death from any cause within the next 2 years, finds research published online in the journal Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine.

13 Sep 2022

Study highlights the urgency of removing barriers to accessing medications for opioid use disorder

The opioid overdose and death epidemic continues to worsen across the United States, but medications such as methadone, buprenorphine, and extended-release naltrexone are proven to reduce opioid overdoses by more than 50 percent.

4 Aug 2022

Administering low-dose buprenorphine intravenously may be a quick way to treat patients with substance use disorders

Overdose deaths involving opioids continue to be a major public health crisis, killing 1,280 people in Baltimore City in 2020, according to the Maryland Department of Health. Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have developed a new way to treat patients with substance use disorders intravenously by administering small doses of buprenorphine, a prescription drug used to treat opioid use disorder.

1 Aug 2022