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The Blackfeet nation’s plight underscores the fentanyl crisis on reservations

As the pandemic was setting in during summer 2020, Justin Lee Littledog called his mom to tell her he was moving from Texas back home to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana with his girlfriend, stepson, and son.

25 May 2022

Opioid use disorder treatment during pregnancy can minimize adverse impacts on the fetal brain

Treating pregnant women with opioid use disorder can help minimize opioid-related brain abnormalities in their newborns.

12 May 2022

Lifesaving drug for opioid use disorder underutilized

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Saint Louis University found that less than half of Americans who received treatment for opioid use disorder over a five-year period were offered a potentially lifesaving medication.

10 May 2022

Study shows how a non-opioid approach successfully manages women's pain after C-section

For years, women recovering from cesarean section (C-section) deliveries have been given devices that let them, with a button, control the flow of opioid painkillers into their IV line. But as researchers and policymakers push to curb the use of opioids, clinicians are developing new strategies for treating pain after C-sections.

3 May 2022

Disasters can disrupt access to medications for opioid use disorder in vulnerable communities

The COVID-19 pandemic has spiked the overdose death rate from opioid use. For people who rely on medications (buprenorphine, methadone, and extended-release naltrexone) to treat opioid use disorders, the pandemic and such natural disasters as tornados, hurricanes, and wildfires can disrupt access to medications.

20 Apr 2022

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may help people in opioid addiction treatment

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may help people being treated for opioid addiction reduce their methadone dose and better manage pain and withdrawal symptoms, according to a pair of studies led by Washington State University scientists.

11 Apr 2022

$11M for North Carolina work-based rehab raises concerns

An addiction treatment facility, highly regarded by North Carolina lawmakers, sits in a residential neighborhood here and operates like a village in itself.

6 Apr 2022

Calls to overhaul methadone distribution intensify, but clinics resist

Days typically start early for patients undergoing opioid addiction treatment at Denver Recovery Group's six methadone clinics in Colorado.

3 Mar 2022

Beta-amyloid deposits found in young patients with COVID-19

A new study describes the finding that patients of COVID-19 exhibit large amounts of focal β-amyloid deposits in their neocortical tissues.

25 Jan 2022

Study: Many incarcerated pregnant people with opioid use disorder do not receive standard of care treatment

In a large survey study looking at the availability of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) for pregnant and postpartum people in United States jails, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found that a substantial number of facilities fail to consistently provide standard MOUD to this group.

20 Jan 2022

In-jail buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder may reduce rearrest and reconviction

A study conducted in two rural Massachusetts jails found that people with opioid use disorder who were incarcerated and received a medication approved to treat opioid use disorder, known as buprenorphine, were less likely to face rearrest and reconviction after release than those who did not receive the medication.

18 Jan 2022

UTEP to develop new initiative to reduce HIV in people who use drugs in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez border

The University of Texas at El Paso will develop a sustainable public health intervention to suppress human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in people who use drugs in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez border region to help slow the spread of HIV.

11 Dec 2021

New approaches needed to address the U.S. opioid epidemic

To address the U.S. opioid epidemic, policies and guidelines have focused primarily on reducing opioid prescribing and restricting supply. Accordingly, opioid prescribing decreased 38% in the past decade.

7 Dec 2021

Relaxing limits on take-home methadone did not lead to worse outcomes

Relaxing limits on take-home doses of methadone-;a medication used to treat opioid addiction-;does not appear to lead to worse treatment outcomes, according to a new study led by Washington State University researchers.

1 Nov 2021

Heroin overdose deaths more likely to occur shortly after hospital discharge

Drug-related deaths are four times more likely to occur in the two days after hospital discharge than at any other time among users of opioids such as heroin, according to research led by UCL, Public Health England (PHE) and King's College London.

6 Oct 2021

Fatal opioid overdoses four times more likely in the first two days after hospital discharge

The period after hospital discharge is a high-risk time for people who use illicit opioids such as heroin, according to new research publishing October 5th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine.

5 Oct 2021

Hospitalized patients with opioid use disorder die at a rate comparable to heart attack patients

Hospitalized patients with opioid use disorder died at a rate comparable to those who suffered heart attacks within a year of hospital discharge, according to a new study from Oregon Health & Science University.

15 Sep 2021

Mobile telemedicine unit found to be effective in treating opioid use disorder in rural areas

Rural regions in the U.S. have been disproportionately affected by the opioid epidemic, while also having the fewest number of programs to treat opioid use disorder.

28 Aug 2021

Research redefines dieting and the culture of weight loss

For decades, there has been an accepted definition of dieting in academia, and in society as a whole. Michael Lowe, PhD, a professor in Drexel University's College of Arts and Sciences, has recently reevaluated the decades of dieting research to redefine the way researchers and the public define – and therefore understand - dieting and the culture of weight loss.

18 Aug 2021

Study reflects shortcomings in how the U.S. handles care for people with opioid addiction

As opioid overdose deaths rose during the COVID-19 pandemic, people seeking treatment for opioid addiction had to wait nearly twice as long to begin methadone treatment in the United States than in Canada, a new Yale study has shown.

23 Jul 2021