Naltrexone News and Research

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Discharged, dismissed: ERs often miss chance to set overdose survivors on ‘better path’

The last time heroin landed Marissa Angerer in a Midland, Texas, emergency room — naked and unconscious — was May 2016. But that wasn't her first drug-related interaction with the health system.

15 Feb 2019

Columbia researchers develop 'Cascade of Care' model to reduce opioid overdose and death

Drug overdose is now the leading cause of death for individuals under the age of 50, as the opioid epidemic continues unabated. One reason is that the majority of the estimated 2.4 million Americans with opioid use disorder aren't getting evidence-based treatment, including medications to treat opioid addiction.

24 Jan 2019

Most substance use disorder treatment facilities do not offer medication treatment

Despite the mounting death toll of America's opioid crisis, only a minority of facilities that treat substance use disorders offer patients buprenorphine, naltrexone or methadone--the three FDA-approved medications for the long-term management of opioid use disorder, according to a new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

16 Jan 2019

Meth’s resurgence spotlights lack of meds to combat the addiction

In 2016, news reports warned the public of an opioid epidemic gripping the nation. But Madeline Vaughn, then a lead clinical intake coordinator at the Houston-based addiction treatment organization Council on Recovery, sensed something different was going on with the patients she checked in from the street.

14 Jan 2019

Opioids contribute to rise in suicides and overdoses in the U.S.

Suicides and drug overdoses kill American adults at twice the rate today as they did just 17 years ago, and opioids are a key contributor to that rise, according to a new review and analysis by a University of Michigan team.

7 Jan 2019

VCU researchers test vaccine against opioid abuse

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers are testing a vaccine against opioid abuse developed by the Scripps Research Institute in California. The vaccine is meant to block the effects of heroin and fentanyl in patients with opioid use disorder.

7 Dec 2018

First-of-its-kind undertaking to study genetic, biological factors that contribute to development of opioid use disorder

The Coriell Institute for Medical Research, Cooper University Health Care and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU) are launching the Camden Opioid Research Initiative (CORI), a first-of-its-kind undertaking to investigate the genetic and biological factors that contribute to the development of opioid use disorder (also referred to as opioid dependence or addiction).

29 Nov 2018

Brigham investigators examine opioid use among Massachusetts adolescents, prescription trends

Opioid-related overdoses and deaths remain a major public health concern in Massachusetts, yet adolescents who experience opioid-related nonfatal overdose have been rarely studied.

13 Nov 2018

FDA approves Cassipa sublingual film for maintenance treatment of opioid dependence

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Cassipa (buprenorphine and naloxone) sublingual film (applied under the tongue) for the maintenance treatment of opioid dependence.

7 Sep 2018

Ketamine’s role in treatment of depression: Study

The anaesthetic drug Ketamine has been shown to be beneficial in some cases of depression and suicidal ideation which have typically failed to respond to other standard antidepressant medications. A new study has explored the actual workings of ketamine in depression and found that the drug can act on the same receptors as opioid pain relievers.

30 Aug 2018

Ketamine's acute antidepressant effect requires opioid system activation, finds study

A new study appearing online today from the American Journal of Psychiatry finds that ketamine's acute antidepressant effect requires opioid system activation, the first time that a receptor site has been shown in humans to be necessary for any antidepressant's mechanism of action.

29 Aug 2018

Extended-release naltrexone appears to help HIV-positive patients reduce heavy drinking

Extended-release naltrexone -- an injection that decreases heavy drinking in the general population when taken in conjunction with counseling -- appears to help HIV-positive individuals reduce their number of heavy drinking days too, say Yale researchers.

7 Aug 2018

FDA issues scientific recommendations to encourage development of novel drugs for treatment of OUD

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued new scientific recommendations aimed at encouraging more widespread innovation and development of novel medication-assisted treatment drugs for the treatment of opioid use disorder.

7 Aug 2018

A simple pill for meth addicts on the cards

Researchers from Australia's Curtin University have developed a simple pill that could be used to treat methamphetamine addicts. It would soon be tried in a clinical trial to prove its efficacy and utility said the researchers.

18 Jul 2018

Methadone or buprenorphine associated with reductions in opioid related mortality

A National Institutes of Health-funded study found that treatment of opioid use disorder with either methadone or buprenorphine following a nonfatal opioid overdose is associated with significant reductions in opioid related mortality.

19 Jun 2018

After opioid overdose, only 30 percent get medicine to treat addiction

More than 115 Americans die every day of opioid overdose. Many more survive thanks to the antidote medication, naloxone. But a study out Monday finds that just 3 in 10 patients revived by an EMT or in an emergency room received the follow-up medication known to avoid another life-threatening event.

19 Jun 2018

Research finds addictions to be diseases of the brain, not criminal behavior or personality disorders

Alcohol dependence, and opiate, cocaine and other stimulant addictions, are all diseases of the brain that have behavioral manifestations and they are not due to criminal behavior alone or to antisocial or "weak" personality disorders.

18 Jun 2018

FDA OKs first non-opioid drug for adults with opioid withdrawal symptoms

The United States Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), in a statement this week, approved a new drug Lucemyra (lofexidine hydrochloride) for the treatment and alleviation of opioid symptom withdrawal symptoms in adults in whom the drugs have been withdrawn abruptly.

17 May 2018

FDA approves new treatment to mitigate opioid withdrawal symptoms in adults

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Lucemyra (lofexidine hydrochloride) for the mitigation of withdrawal symptoms to facilitate abrupt discontinuation of opioids in adults.