Opioids News and Research

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An opioid is a chemical that works by binding to opioid receptors, which are found principally in the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract. The receptors in these two organ systems mediate both the beneficial effects and the side effects of opioids.

Racism contributes to disproportionate newborn drug testing

If a newborn tests positive for certain drugs after birth, mandated reporters in many states – including health care professionals and social workers – are required to report it to Child Protective Services.

8 Mar 2023

Despite pharma claims, illicit drug shipments to us aren’t full of opioids. It’s generic Viagra.

For years, the FDA has defended its efforts to intercept prescription drugs coming from abroad by mail as necessary to keep out dangerous opioids, including fentanyl.

6 Mar 2023

Gene mutation capable of regulating pain discovered

Pain afflicts at least 1.5 billion people worldwide, and despite the availability of various painkilling drugs, not all forms of pain are treatable.

3 Mar 2023

California’s massive Medicaid program works for some, but fails many others

Newborns. Former inmates. College students. Expectant moms. People with disabilities. Foster kids. Homeless people. Single dads.

2 Mar 2023

Cedars-Sinai receives $2 million CIRM grant to combat lower back pain

Investigators at Cedars-Sinai have received a $2 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to develop a new cell therapy that helps improve quality of life for patients with degenerated discs and chronic lower back pain.

28 Feb 2023

Novel multimodal analgesia protocol following total knee arthroplasty provides pain relief without opioids

A study led by Vinod Dasa, MD, Professor of Orthopaedics at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, reports that a novel surgical pain management strategy following total knee arthroplasty (TKA), or total knee replacement, provided pain relief without opioids.

27 Feb 2023

Determining the role of the epigenetic enzyme, HDAC5, in an animal model

Substance use disorder (SUD) is an extremely difficult disorder to overcome, and many individuals with SUD return to regular use after repeated attempts to quit.

27 Feb 2023

Skin medication shows promise in treating alcohol use disorder

Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University and institutions across the country have identified a pill used to treat a common skin disease as an "incredibly promising" treatment for alcohol use disorder.

21 Feb 2023

New approach to pain management can reduce opioid use after urethroplasty

For men undergoing surgery to repair scarring in the urethra (urethroplasty), a new approach to pain management can reduce the need for strong opioid drugs without compromising pain control, reports a study in Urology Practice, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association.

21 Feb 2023

Study finds fiftyfold increase in U.S. methamphetamine mortality rate between 1999 and 2021

The U.S. methamphetamine mortality rate increased fiftyfold between 1999 and 2021, with most of the added deaths also involving heroin or fentanyl, researchers report in the American Journal of Public Health.

20 Feb 2023

A call to action proposed for health providers to ensure widest distribution, easy availability of naloxone

In 2021, 100,306 Americans died from drug overdoses – a 28.5 percent increase from the prior year – with 75,673 attributed to opioids.

16 Feb 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

Study: Nearly one in eight West Virginia infants had in-utero exposure to opioids, stimulants

Nearly one in eight infants born in West Virginia between 2020 and 2022 had in utero exposure to opioids, stimulants and/or cannabis, according to researchers at West Virginia University Health Sciences.

8 Feb 2023

What is the effect of preferred music on pain thresholds?

This study evaluated the effect of preferred music, as opposed to disliked music, on the perception of pain and pain tolerance in healthy volunteers.

3 Feb 2023

Some addiction treatment centers turn big profits by scaling back care

Near the end of his scheduled three-month stay at a rehab center outside Austin, Texas, Daniel McKegney was forced to tell his father in North Carolina that he needed more time and more money, he recently recalled.

31 Jan 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

Research provides a comprehensive structural framework to design safer pain-relieving drugs

In the continuing effort to improve upon opioid pain relievers, American and Chinese scientists used cryoEM technology to solve the detailed structures of the entire family of opioid receptors bound to their naturally occurring peptides.

18 Jan 2023

Study: Almost a third of patients with chronic pain use cannabis

As more U.S. states legalize cannabis (also known as marijuana) for medical and recreational use, increasing numbers of people are experimenting with it for pain relief. According to a new study published in JAMA Network Open, almost a third of patients with chronic pain reported using cannabis to manage it.

6 Jan 2023

Low-cost intervention can make a difference to America's deadly overdose epidemic

There are no simple solutions to America's deadly overdose epidemic, which costs 100,000 lives each year and is erasing gains in life expectancy.