Opioid Addiction News and Research

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Over 1 million years of life lost in Ohio from overdose deaths, shows study

The drug addiction epidemic continues to plague the country, and thousands of lives are cut short each year due to overdose.

18 Jul 2019

Opioid overdose deaths on the decline says CDC but the real picture may still be grim

The opioid epidemic began in the 1990s with hundreds of deaths occurring each year due to overdose of these drugs of abuse. According to the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), for the first time in two decades, there has been a drop of 5 percent in the opioid overdose deaths in 2018.

17 Jul 2019

Medicare going in ‘right direction’ on opioid epidemic

Prescriptions for two drugs used to treat opioid addiction increased significantly from 2016 to 2018 for people on Medicare, according to a federal report out Wednesday.

10 Jul 2019

UM scientists receive $3.3 million NIH contract to develop opioid addiction vaccine

The University of Montana has received a $3.3 million contract from the National Institutes of Health to develop an innovative vaccine targeting opioid addiction.

10 Jul 2019

Herbal supplement used to treat addiction and pain is not safe, research says

The herb kratom is increasingly being used to manage pain and treat opioid addiction, but it's not safe to use as an herbal supplement, according to new research led by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

9 Jul 2019

Role of hospital and health-system pharmacists in drug therapy monitoring

As hospitals look for ways to stem the opioid crisis, a survey of health-system pharmacy directors released today found that most large health systems have active stewardship programs to prevent the misuse of opioids -- with pharmacists playing a key role in detecting drug diversion and identifying strategies to encourage appropriate opioid prescribing.

4 Jul 2019

Study: Dozens of counties in the U.S. are at highest risk for opioid deaths

Dozens of counties in the Midwest and South are at the highest risk for opioid deaths in the United States, say University of Michigan researchers.

29 Jun 2019

Opioids are major cause of pregnancy-related deaths in Utah

Stephanie lay in the Salt Lake County jail bunk bed and thought, "Everything would be better if I just died."

28 Jun 2019

Expanding role of registered nurses in primary care

Nurse-researchers at South Dakota State University are helping rural clinics more fully utilize registered nurses in primary care and have expanded the nursing curriculum to better prepare students to deliver that care.

27 Jun 2019

Surgeons’ opioid-prescribing habits hard to kick

As opioid addiction and deadly overdoses escalated into an epidemic across the U.S., thousands of surgeons continued to hand out far more pills than needed for postoperative pain relief, according to a KHN-Johns Hopkins analysis of Medicare data.

21 Jun 2019

Legal promise of equal mental health treatment often falls short

Amanda Bacon's eating disorder was growing worse. She had lost 60% of her body weight and was consuming about 100 calories a day.

7 Jun 2019

Alzheimer's therapy may be effective in treating individuals addicted to opioids

Clinical trial results reveal that a medication used to treat Alzheimer's disease may also be an effective therapy for individuals addicted to opioids. The findings are published in The American Journal on Addictions.

6 Jun 2019

Metabolite of kratom alkaloid could be responsible for its pain relief benefits

Kratom is a Southeast Asian tree with a long history of use in traditional medicine.

30 May 2019

Oklahoma’s ‘precedent-setting’ suit puts opioid drugmakers on trial

All eyes will be on Oklahoma this week when the first case in a flood of litigation against opioid drug manufacturers begins Tuesday.

28 May 2019

Use of buprenorphine to treat opioid addiction proliferates in California

Buprenorphine, a relative newcomer in the treatment of opioid addiction, is growing in popularity among California doctors as regulatory changes, physician training and other initiatives make the medication more widely accessible.

24 May 2019

New pain management program sends 92% cancer surgery patients home with no opioids

A specialized pain management program for patients who underwent robotic surgery for urologic cancers resulted in just eight percent going home with narcotics after discharge, compared to 100 percent who would have received them without this enhanced recovery protocol.

23 May 2019

Cannabis could help people with opioid addiction

A new study has shown that cannabidiol or CBD, found in cannabis, could help people with opioid use disorder or addiction. CBD can help reduce the symptoms of craving among addicts when on withdrawal from the opioid and also reduce the accompanying anxiety and restlessness write the authors of the study.

22 May 2019