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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

California lawmakers push feds to allow a therapy that pays meth users to abstain

In his multiple attempts to overcome a methamphetamine addiction that ground through two decades of his life, Tyrone Clifford Jr. remembers well the closest he came. "The most success I had," he said, "is when my dealer was in jail."

2 Jul 2021

Opioid Agonist Therapy can reduce mortality risk in people with opioid dependence

A new global review has found that receiving Opioid Agonist Therapy (OAT) is associated with lower risk of multiple causes of death among people with opioid dependence.

3 Jun 2021

Most prescriptions for buprenorphine are written by a small number of health care providers

Most prescriptions for the drug buprenorphine, used to treat opioid use disorder, are written by a small number of the health care providers, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

2 Jun 2021

Study: Pharmacies can be a significant access barrier to key medication for addiction

One in five pharmacies refuse to dispense a key medication to treat addiction, according to new research.

27 Apr 2021

Extensive use of opioid agonists can considerably reduce drug-related deaths

New evidence that opioid agonists such as methadone and buprenorphine could substantially reduce drug-related deaths if more widely used in the community and prison, and for longer, has been published in Lancet Psychiatry.

25 Feb 2021

Recommendations to help ensure access to high-quality opioid use disorder treatment

On January 14, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted notice to the Federal Register that it would issue practice guidelines that exempt physicians from the requirement to apply for a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) in up to 30 patients at one time.

25 Feb 2021

Opioid supply-controlling policies may have unintended consequences, finds study

In response to the increase in opioid overdose deaths in the United States, many states have implemented supply-controlling and harm-reduction policy measures aimed at reducing those deaths.

17 Feb 2021

Poor and terminally ill Mexicans have less chance to get opioids intended for palliative care

If you're poor and terminally ill in southern Mexico, there's far less chance you'll get the painkillers you need for palliative care than your cousins in more prosperous regions, particularly those pharmacy-rich areas along Mexico-U.S. border, say UCLA researchers and colleagues who studied opioid dispensing levels across the country.

13 Feb 2021

Study provides new insight about integrating treatment for HIV and opioid use disorder in Vietnam

An assessment published this week in the journal The Lancet HIV provides new insight about an initiative to integrate treatment of opioid use disorder along with HIV in Vietnam.

5 Feb 2021

Active cannabis dispensaries linked to reduced opioid-related mortality rates

Counties with a greater number of cannabis dispensary storefronts experience reduced numbers of opioid-related deaths relative to other locales, a recent University of California, Davis, study has found.

29 Jan 2021

New report offers recommendations to address opioid epidemic during COVID-19 pandemic

A new report from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health offers recommendations aimed at federal, state, and local policymakers to address the opioid epidemic during the pandemic, which has seen sharp increases in fatal and nonfatal overdoses.

21 Dec 2020

Cannabis use during opioid addiction treatment may reduce fentanyl exposure

New research suggests that cannabis use by people in care for opioid addiction might improve their treatment outcomes and reduce their risk of being exposed to fentanyl in the contaminated unregulated drug supply.