Overdose News and Research

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Opioids are main contributor to fatal overdoses

The number of deaths from drug overdoses in the United States in 2010 rose for the 11th consecutive year, show data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

25 Feb 2013

Growth in opioid use prompts safety concerns

Prescriptions for opioid drugs have increased significantly in Germany over the past decade, a survey of insurance data has found.

20 Feb 2013

Biomarkers could be antidote to overdose overtreatment

Researchers have identified several biomarkers that can accurately predict acute liver injury after acetaminophen overdose.

11 Feb 2013

Parenteral nutrition safety: an interview with Dr. Phil Ayers, A.S.P.E.N PN Safety Task Force Chair and Dr. Peggi Guenter, Director of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.)

Parenteral nutrition is intravenous nutrition for patients who are unable to eat or be tube fed. It is used with more than 300,000 patients per year - a quarter of whom are children and newborns.

11 Feb 2013

FDA hears concerns on new narcotic pain pill rules

Survivors of those who died from opioid overdoses urge changes in the drugs' labels, but some patients express concerns that they might have trouble getting the drugs.

11 Feb 2013

First Edition: February 8, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including reports about Marilyn Tavenner's nomination to run Medicare and the Catholic bishops' rejection of the Obama administration's contraception plan announced last week.

9 Feb 2013

Education and response programs reduce opioid overdose deaths

Results from a US study suggest that a state-supported program of overdose education and nasal naloxone distribution for potential bystanders can help reduce opioid-related overdose deaths.

8 Feb 2013

Study: OEND effectively addresses epidemic of fatal opioid overdose

In a study of communities in Massachusetts with high numbers of opioid overdose deaths, the implementation of overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) was associated with a significant reduction in opioid overdose death rates.

2 Feb 2013

Parents not very concerned about misuse of narcotic pain medicines by children and teens

Despite data on rising rates of abuse and overdoses of narcotic pain medicines across all age groups, in a new poll from the University of Michigan, most parents said they are not very concerned about misuse of these medicines by children and teens.

24 Jan 2013

State highlights: Calif. governor earmarks money for Medi-Cal expansion; Mental health reforms take shape in Kan., Colo.

Brown earmarked $350 million in his spending plan to help enroll more Californians in Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance program for the poor. Under the proposal, enrollment rules would be simplified to cover residents who are currently eligible but not enrolled.

15 Jan 2013

Cost-effectiveness findings for naloxone revealed

Researchers have found that naloxone distribution to heroin users could reduce the number of deaths from overdose while being cost-effective.

4 Jan 2013

Prescribing opioids lead to admissions for substance abuse treatment and deaths

A Viewpoint article published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that the clinical practice of prescribing amphetamines, opioids, and benzodiazepines to treat chronic pain may be contributing to the increase in fatal drug overdoses and the likelihood that those drugs will be diverted to the illegal market.

6 Dec 2012

Somnogen induces sleep in patients with primary hypersomnia

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have discovered that dozens of adults with an elevated need for sleep have a substance in their cerebrospinal fluid that acts like a sleeping pill.

22 Nov 2012

Viewpoints: Obama must tell allies that entitlements can't be excluded from fiscal deal; Medical device tax will thwart innovation

As bipartisan negotiations over avoiding the "fiscal cliff" draw nearer, many of President Obama's core Democratic supporters are urging him to fix the debt through defense cuts and tax increases rather than by tackling Social Security, Medicare and other federal entitlement programs. It's a reprise of progressive resistance to the entitlement trims Mr. Obama contemplated during the abortive debt-reduction negotiations with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) last year.

15 Nov 2012

LA Times investigates doctors' connection to prescription drug abuse

Prescription overdoses kill more people than heroin and cocaine. An L.A. Times review of coroners' records finds that drugs prescribed by a small number of doctors caused or contributed to a disproportionate number of deaths.

14 Nov 2012

Blog series on global AIDS blueprint features post about harm reduction

As part of its "Blueprint" series discussing the creation of a U.S. global AIDS blueprint called for by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in July, the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog features a guest post by Allan Clear, executive director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, in which he highlights an existing "WHO, UNODC, UNAIDS Technical Guide [.pdf] for countries to set targets for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care for injecting drug users."

8 Nov 2012

Prescription pain medication abuse on the rise among current generation of adolescents

A new study by the University of Colorado Denver reveals that today's adolescents are abusing prescription pain medications like vicodin, valium and oxycontin at a rate 40 percent higher than previous generations.

17 Oct 2012

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announces winners of 2012 Community Health Leaders Award

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is proud to announce today the recipients of its 2012 Community Health Leaders Award, honoring 10 individuals who have surmounted significant challenges to help improve health and health care in their communities.

17 Oct 2012

Major holidays associated with reduced number of suicide attempts by poisoning

A joint study by University of Cincinnati Department of Emergency Medicine and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center researchers has found that, in contrast to popular opinion, major holidays are associated with a lower number of suicide attempts by poisoning.

16 Oct 2012

Anesthetics and protein interactions: an interview with José A. Fernández

For a long time there was a controversy about how anesthetics work. The large number of molecules that have anesthetic properties (from benzodiazepines to nitrous oxide) and their very different structures...

8 Oct 2012