Prohibition Is the Obvious Cause of Opioid Crisis as CDC Releases Preliminary Casualty Numbers for 2017
Earlier this month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released preliminary estimates of the opioid overdose rate for 2017. The total overdose rate rose to approximately 72,000, up from a total overdose rate of 63,600 in 2016, an increase of roughly 10 percent. The total overdose rate includes deaths from numerous drugs in addition to opioids, such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and benzodiazepines. The opioid-related overdose rate increased as well, from a little over 42,000 in 2016 to over 49,000 in 2017. This increase occurred despite a 4 percent drop in heroin overdoses and a 2 percent drop in overdoses...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 16, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
One step forward and two steps back
I spent 15 years as the Research Director for a community-based public health agency in Massachusetts. We offered substance abuse treatment and mental health services for people at risk for HIV; broader community-based HIV prevention and counseling and testing; housing services for people with HIV; and clinical case management. All of that is about saving the lives of individuals, and also preventing HIV transmission and protecting public health. In principle, if we do all that well and work at it hard enough, we can stop the epidemic.We were making progress. The number of new infections kept declining. The prevalence of H...
Source: Stayin' Alive - August 6, 2018 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Americans Fighting the Opioid Crisis in Their Own Backyards
Credit: New York Times article, Jan. 19, 2016.
The United States is in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic. The rates of opioid addiction, babies born addicted to opioids, and overdoses have skyrocketed in the past decade. No population has been hit harder than rural communities. Many of these communities are in states with historically low levels of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIGMS’ Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program builds research capacities in these states by supporting basic, clinical, and translational research, as well as faculty development and infrastructure improveme...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - August 1, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Chris Palmer Tags: Pharmacology Medicines Opioids Pain Source Type: blogs
CPR: A neglected but important part of fighting the opioid crisis
Opioid overdose is a frightening and potentially life-threatening event. Rescue drugs like naloxone are lifesaving, but the value of CPR doesn’t get as much attention. And it should.
How does opioid overdose lead to death?
Opioids (like oxycodone, heroin, and fentanyl) bind to special receptors in the brain called mu receptors. These receptors are responsible for a variety of functions, most importantly breathing. When the mu receptor is stimulated by an opioid, it releases chemicals that work downstream on parts of the brain that tell the body to slow down breathing, or even stop it altogether. This respiratory depressi...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - July 27, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Stephen P. Wood, MS, ACNP-BC Tags: Addiction First Aid Health Source Type: blogs
Civilian Casualties Continue to Mount in Governments ’ War on Opioids
I have written here and here about how patients have become the civilian casualties of the misguided policies addressing the opioid (now predominantly fentanyl and heroin) crisis. The policies have dramatically reduced opioid prescribing by health care practitioners and have pressured them into rapidly tapering or cutting off their chronic pain patients from the opioids that have allowed them to function. More and more reports appear in the pres s about patients becoming desperate because their doctors, often fearing they may lose their livelihoods if they are seen as “outliers” by surveillance agencies, under-t...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 24, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
The can and can ’t of cannabis
As of now, twenty-nine states have legalized medical marijuana use and eight have legalized recreational use. The debate rages on about legalization, but the actual effects of cannabis get much less attention. A huge issue is that cannabis can be both helpful and harmful for a wide range of symptoms and conditions, and currently, the research is incomplete. But the barriers to actually study this substance are resource-intensive and restrictive.
One of the biggest barriers for researchers who apply for federal funding is regulation. Cannabis is categorized as a Schedule I drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). A substa...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 15, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/eunice-zhang" rel="tag" > Eunice Zhang, MD < /a > Tags: Policy Public Health & Source Type: blogs
Methadone and Mixed Messages
As a physician licensed to prescribe narcotics, I am legally permitted to prescribe the powerful opioid methadone (also known by the brand name Dolophine ) to my patients suffering from severe, intractable pain that hasn ’t been adequately controlled by other, less powerful pain killers. Most patients I encounter who might fall into that category are likely to be terminal cancer patients. I’ve often wondered why I am approved to prescribe methadone to my patients as a treatment for pain, but I am not allowed to prescribe methadone to taper my patients off of a physical dependence they may have developed from lo...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 13, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
FDA Commissioner Gottlieb ’s Sunday “Tweetorial” Is Both Encouraging and Frustrating
A fair reading of Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb ’s “Sunday Tweetorial” on the opioid overdose crisis leaves one simultaneously encouraged and frustrated. First the encouraging news. The Commissioner admits that the so-called epidemic of opioid overdoses has “evolved” from one “mostly involving [diverted] prescription drugs to one that’s increasingly fueled by illicit substances being purchased online or off the street.” Most encouraging was this passage: Even as lawful prescribing of opioids is declining, we ’re seeing large increases in deaths from accidental drug overdoses...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 2, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Fentanyl is a killer drug in 50% of opioid overdoses.
Fentanyl is 10 times more powerful than heroin. Gets mixed into street heroin and kills users by unintentional overdoses. (Source: Markham's Behavioral Health)
Source: Markham's Behavioral Health - June 30, 2018 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: David G. Markham Source Type: blogs
No, Babies Are NOT Born Addicted to Opioids
“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste,” is a phrase coined by Stanford economist Paul Romer. Politicians are always in search of new crises to address—new fires to put out—with rapid and decisive action. In their passion to appear heroic to their constituents they often act in haste, not ta king the time to develop a deep and nuanced understanding of the issue at hand, insensitive to the notion that their actions might actually exacerbate the crisis.An example of that lack of understanding was made apparent in a press release by the office of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) on June 22 supporting legisl...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 25, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Prescription monitoring programs: Helpful or harmful?
The crushing toll of the opioid crisis is daily news, including stories about ways to “fix” it. A wide array of initiatives has been brought forward in an attempt to curb this epidemic and the damage it causes. Prescription monitoring programs (PMPs) are one of them. The goal of PMPs is a good one — to identify patients who are being prescribed multiple medications by multiple clinicians. It is a means to introduce some stewardship for preventing overuse and misuse of prescription drugs.
How prescription monitoring programs work
Prescription monitoring programs are state-based electronic databases that provide a way ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - June 8, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Stephen P. Wood, MS, ACNP-BC Tags: Addiction Drugs and Supplements Health Source Type: blogs
Why Is the OECD Trying to Connect Labor Market Conditions and Opioids?
A story in today’s Wall Street Journal discusses the latest report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on ”prime age” (25-54) labor-force participation rates among its 35 member countries through the last quarter of 2017. While the US rate has improved, it remains below the average OECD rate, lagging behind such developed countries as Japan and the UK. What’s puzzling is why the authors of the report decided to weigh in on the opioid overdose issue.Noting that per capita opioid prescriptions in the US are “significantly higher” than in other OECD countries, the report finds that ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 7, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Fentanyl: A Big Danger in Small Amounts
A recent report found that nearly half of overdose deaths that are related to opioids involve fentanyl.Read More » (Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog)
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - May 29, 2018 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
