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Drug Dependence News
Related terms: Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Opiate Addiction
FDA Approves Non-Opioid Medication, Lucemyra (Lofexidine), to Treat Opioid Withdrawal
Posted 5 days ago by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, May 17, 2018 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the non-opioid drug Lucemyra to help adults cope with symptoms of opioid withdrawal. The drug can help addicts boost the odds that they will be able to kick their addiction to these powerful painkillers, the FDA said. It was fast-tracked for approval under the agency's Priority Review amid ongoing concerns about ...
Non-Opioid Treatment Lucemyra (Lofexidine Hydrochloride) Approved for Opioid Withdrawal
Posted 5 days ago by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, May 17, 2018 – Lucemyra (lofexidine hydrochloride) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat symptoms of opioid withdrawal. Withdrawal from an opioid painkiller can trigger symptoms including anxiety, agitation, sleep problems, muscle aches, sweating, nausea, diarrhea and drug craving. To prevent such symptoms, doctors typically recommend slow withdrawal from ...
Hospitals Should, and Could, Avoid IV Opioids: Study
Posted 8 days ago by Drugs.com
MONDAY, May 14, 2018 – When it comes to pain management for hospital patients, opioid pills or injections are less dangerous and just as effective as giving the drug intravenously, a new study shows. The results "have the potential to be practice-changing," study author Dr. Adam Ackerman, clinical instructor in internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine, said in a university news release. The ...
Opioid Makers' Perks to Docs Tied to More Prescriptions
Posted 8 days ago by Drugs.com
MONDAY, May 14, 2018 – Doctors who accept perks from companies that make opioid painkillers are more likely to prescribe the drugs for their patients, new research suggests. The money in question paid doctors for meals, consulting and speaking fees, and travel expenses. Typically, doctors receive less than $1,000 per year, said lead investigator Dr. Scott Hadland. Less than 2 percent of ...
Alcohol, Tobacco Cause More Health Harm Than Illegal Drugs
Posted 11 days ago by Drugs.com
FRIDAY, May 11, 2018 – It's smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol – and not taking illegal drugs – that pose the greatest risks to people's health, a new international study contends. Researchers found that alcohol and tobacco use combined cost more than a quarter of a billion disability-adjusted life-years worldwide, while illegal drugs only accounted for tens of millions in comparison. ...
Hit Hard by Opioid Crisis, Appalachian States Expand Clean-Needle Programs
Posted 11 days ago by Drugs.com
FRIDAY, May 11, 2018 – In 2013, there was just one clean-needle program in all of West Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina, and the latter two states had laws banning such programs. Fast-forward four years: All of those laws have now been overturned and the number of "syringe services programs" available to help addicts has risen to over 50 across the three states, researchers report. ...
Programs That Monitor Opioid Painkillers May Drive Some to Heroin
Posted 14 days ago by Drugs.com
MONDAY, May 7, 2018 – Prescription drug monitoring programs are touted as a way to reduce overdoses from opioid painkillers, but they might have the unintended effect of increasing heroin overdose deaths, researchers say. They reviewed 17 studies that assessed the impact of these programs and found that 10 of them linked the programs to reductions in opioid overdose deaths. But three studies ...
Walmart Announces New Measures to Cut Opioid Abuse
Posted 14 days ago by Drugs.com
Walmart Inc. says it will take more steps to reduce opioid medication abuse and misuse. Earlier this year, the company announced free opioid medication disposal in all its U.S. pharmacies. On Monday, the company said that within the next 60 days, Walmart and Sam's Club will restrict initial acute opioid prescriptions to no more than a seven-day supply, with up to a 50 morphine milligram ...
Racial Divide Narrows in Opioid Prescribing in U.S.
Posted 18 days ago by Drugs.com
FRIDAY, May 4, 2018 – Black Americans are no longer less likely than whites to be prescribed opioid painkillers – but that means their risk of addiction to the narcotics has increased, researchers say. "To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of a potential narrowing of the divide in opioid prescribing by race and ethnicity," study lead author Matthew Davis said in a University of Michigan ...
Fentanyl Now Drives Drug Overdose Deaths in U.S.
Posted 1 May 2018 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, May 1, 2018 – Overdose deaths involving dangerous synthetic opioids like fentanyl have skyrocketed in recent years, surpassing deaths from prescription painkillers, a new U.S. study reveals. Synthetic opioids – primarily fentanyl – were involved in more than 30 percent of fatal overdoses in 2016, up from roughly 8 percent in 2010, the researchers reported. Overall, drug overdose ...
Another Opioid Epidemic Downside: More Heart Infections
Posted 26 Apr 2018 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, April 26, 2018 – Here's yet another consequence of the U.S. opioid crisis: a rise in serious heart infections in a state hard-hit by the drug epidemic. A new study, done at West Virginia's largest medical center, found that admissions for endocarditis related to drug abuse more than doubled between 2008 and 2015. That parallels an increase in drug use in the state. Endocarditis is a ...
Race Now Plays Smaller Role in Americans' Risk of Dying Young
Posted 26 Apr 2018 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, April 25, 2018 – The racial gap between black and white Americans for dying early has narrowed, but opioid overdose deaths among whites might be fueling part of that otherwise positive trend. The new findings stem from an analysis of death records between 1990 and 2014, which tracked "years of life lost," meaning the difference between an individual's projected natural life span and ...
Many Opioid Overdoses May Be Suicides
Posted 26 Apr 2018 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, April 25, 2018 – As the United States grapples with an ongoing opioid epidemic, experts are calling attention to a hidden aspect of the crisis: Many overdose deaths may, in fact, be suicides. The researchers describe suicide as a "silent contributor" to the nation's opioid overdose death rate. It's hard to know exactly how many Americans have intentionally overdosed on opioids in ...
Addictive Opioids Still Overprescribed After Surgery: Study
Posted 20 Apr 2018 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, April 19, 2018 – Doctors continue to prescribe far too many opioid painkillers to patients following surgery, a new study indicates. In fact, one of every three patients prescribed an opioid, such as Oxycontin, didn't take a single pill during their recuperation, said lead researcher Elizabeth Habermann. She is scientific director for surgical outcomes at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, ...
Doctors Curbing First-Time Prescriptions for Opioids
Posted 13 Apr 2018 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, April 12, 2018 – Although the opioid epidemic continues to rage in America, promising new data show that first-time opioid painkiller prescription rates have slowed in recent years. The researchers also discovered that people taking medications called benzodiazepines – used to treat anxiety, panic attacks and mental conditions associated with chronic pain – were more likely to ...
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Opiate Dependence, Toxic Reactions Incl Drug and Substance Abuse
