Targeting The Opioid Drug Crisis: A Health And Human Services Initiative
Deaths from drug overdoses have been rising steadily over the past two decades and have surpassed car accidents to become the leading cause of injury death in the United States. Millions of Americans rely on prescription opioids for much needed relief from the pain caused by illness and injury, but in the past decade we have seen increases in addiction, overdose, and deaths due to these drugs. From 1999 to 2013, the rate for drug poisoning deaths involving opioid analgesics nearly quadrupled.
Total drug poisoning deaths continue to rise each year, as does the share of deaths due to heroin and prescription opioids. Th...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - April 3, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Richard Frank Tags: All Categories Pharma Physicians Policy Public Health Substance Abuse Source Type: blogs
Utah Department of Health Refuses to Acknowledge that Cigarette Smoking is Any More Hazardous than Vaping
In 2015, even the cigarette companies readily acknowledge that cigarette smoking is much more hazardous than vaping, which involves no tobacco and no combustion.Not so for the Utah Department of Health.In a "fact" sheet, the Department asks the question "Are e-cigarettes worse or better than regular cigarettes?" and then answers it by stating: "Since e-cigarettes are not yet regulated as tobacco products, there is very little information about the ingredients of liquids or the approximate exposure to harmful and potentially harmful constituents when using e-cigarettes over the short-term or long-term. While several stud...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - February 18, 2015 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
In the Nalox“ZONE”
A 27-year-old woman with no past medical history presented to the ED by EMS after being found unresponsive at home by her partner. EMS reported that she was unresponsive with a GCS of 3, pinpoint pupils, and sonorous breath sounds. Naloxone 0.4 mg IV was administered, and the patient became responsive. The patient was delirious, agitated, and tachycardic upon arrival to the ED. She was administered lorazepam 2 mg IV without improvement. Her agitation and delirium were so severe that she was intubated, paralyzed with rocuronium, and started on a midazolam infusion.
What is the appropriate dose of IV naloxone?
No conse...
Source: The Tox Cave - February 2, 2015 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
In the Nalox“ZONE”
A 27-year-old woman with no past medical history presented to the ED by EMS after being found unresponsive at home by her partner. EMS reported that she was unresponsive with a GCS of 3, pinpoint pupils, and sonorous breath sounds. Naloxone 0.4 mg IV was administered, and the patient became responsive. The patient was delirious, agitated, and tachycardic upon arrival to the ED. She was administered lorazepam 2 mg IV without improvement. Her agitation and delirium were so severe that she was intubated, paralyzed with rocuronium, and started on a midazolam infusion.
What is the appropriate dose of IV naloxone?
No consensu...
Source: The Tox Cave - January 30, 2015 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
December 2014 Pallimed Review: Posts and Comments
If you have not noticed by now, we have really started to increase our publishing output, so since some great articles may fall off your radar, we will start doing a monthly review to make sure you didn't miss something really good. And if you are one of the few hundred subscribers with a daily option, do not forget you can always change to MWF or weekly!Our two most popular posts this month on social media were Emily Riegel's letter to the spouses of palliative care professionals and Bob Arnold's case review of when emotions or facts are at the center of goals of care discussions. Good ones to share with your teams m...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - January 2, 2015 Category: Palliative Carer Workers Tags: meta sinclair Source Type: blogs
Chest Pain and a Very Abnormal ECG
A male in his 60's with no history of coronary disease presented with chest pain. Here is his ED ECG:He had several previous ECGs this year and they were all identical.What do you notice? What should you do?There is bizarre ST depression, T-wave inversion, prolonged QT, and large U-waves (vs. VERY long QT).This should make you worry about hypokalemia or about acquired long QT syndrome. I saw this ECG in a stack and noticed that caregivers had been only worried about ischemia. The patient was appropriately evaluated for ischemia (with a negative workup) but other etiologies of this ST depression had ...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - October 15, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs
Don’t become your kids’ drug dealers
Doing drugs no longer requires a dealer on the street corner.
Between the late 1990′s and 2010 sales of narcotic pain medicines quadrupled in the United States. Hydrocodone use increased by 280%, methadone by 1300%, and oxycodone by 900%. As the consumption of these medicines increased, so did ER visits and deaths from overdose — up by about 500%.
Continue reading ...
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 11, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Roy Benaroch, MD Tags: Meds Medications Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
Once an Addict, Always an Addict?
This is a saying I’ve always grappled with. One part of me is against any type of labeling, let alone a heavy label to be carried for the rest of your life. We are all so interchangeably dynamic, that to categorize someone into a box forever doesn’t sit well.
Another part of me completely agrees with this statement and perceives it to be utterly valid. Instead of denying who you are, true acceptance perhaps is the only way to not only recover, but to continue to maintain your recovery. However much I am against “branding” someone for life, it is human nature to create categorizes in order to piece things togethe...
Source: World of Psychology - August 30, 2014 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Kristin Bach Tags: Addiction Celebrities Habits Health-related Mindfulness Personal Recovery Born Again Designer Drugs Party Drugs Peer Pressure Self Acceptance smoking Substance Abuse Source Type: blogs
Real Teens Ask: What Are the Different Types of Opioids?
Learn more about the different types of opioids in this updated post from 2013.
During the 2013 Drug Facts Chat Day, teens from across the country submitted their questions about drug abuse to NIDA scientists. A teen from Walter Johnson High School in Maryland asked:
“What types of opioids are there?”
Opioids are psychoactive chemicals that occur naturally (in the resin of the poppy plant) or can be made in a laboratory. They work by binding to opioid receptors in the central and peripheral nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract.
There are illegal opioids (like heroin) as well as legal opioids that are prescri...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - July 16, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: Sara Bellum Source Type: blogs
A Soldier’s War on Pain - NYTimes.com
Four years and a lifetime ago, a new war began for Sgt. Shane Savage.On Sept. 3, 2010, the armored truck he was commanding near Kandahar, Afghanistan, was blown apart by a roadside bomb. His head hit the ceiling so hard that his helmet cracked. His left foot was pinned against the dashboard, crushing 24 bones.Sergeant Savage came home eight days later, at age 27, with the signature injuries of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan: severe concussion, post-traumatic stress and chronic pain. Doctors at Fort Hood in Killeen, Tex., did what doctors across the nation do for millions of ordinary Americans: They prescribed p...
Source: Psychology of Pain - May 11, 2014 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Overheard in ER this weekend
Dr. Urgent: "What do you take for your asthma?"Mr. Wheezy: "Methadone." (Source: Doctor Grumpy in the House)
Source: Doctor Grumpy in the House - March 18, 2014 Category: Neurologists Authors: Grumpy, M.D. Source Type: blogs
The needle and the damage done
The Guardian has asked heroin addicts to describe their thoughts and experiences. These responses are often eloquent and always revealing. One says,Heroin encases you in a little cotton-wool house and nothing hurts anymore. When times are hard, heroin encases you in a little cotton-wool house and nothing hurts anymore. If you haven't put in the work to become truly mindful, it's very easy to relapse. We know what heroin feels like, even twenty or thirty years after a hit. The memory of that wonderful warm feeling remains. I have had vague thoughts that in years to come, growing old with heroin wouldn't be such a bad ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 18, 2014 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs
What is This Thing Called Neuroplasticity?
And how does it impact addiction and recovery?Bielefeld, Germany—The first in an irregular series of posts about a recent conference, Neuroplasticity in Substance Addiction and Recovery: From Genes to Culture and Back Again. The conference, held at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld University, drew neuroscientists, historians, psychologists, philosophers, and even a freelance science journalist or two, coming in from Germany, the U.S., The Netherlands, the UK, Finland, France, Italy, Australia, and elsewhere. The organizing idea was to focus on how changes in the brain impact addiction and reco...
Source: Addiction Inbox - January 16, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Answer to the question: What kind of drug test shows a positive test for heroin/methadone?
It’s Q&A time again. This one comes from ‘Biking in 209′ who is asking…
My ex-wife is a heroin addict who is in methadone “treatment”. She is coming after my children that I have had 75% custody of since the seperation. She has told the court that she is in treatment, but family and friends state that she is currenty back on heroin and maybe abusing her methadone. My problem is that the county court’s drug test is a hair test and only shows up “opiates”. My lawyer is convinced that no other test will work. I am desperate to find a test that will either show heroin...
Source: Addiction Recovery Blog - December 6, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Addiction Recovery Author Tags: Heroin Treatment Source Type: blogs
A Reader’s Question – What kind of drug test shows a positive test for heroin/methadone?
It’s time for another question/answer. I know a lot of you like these so here we go. This one comes from (Source: Addiction Recovery Blog)
Source: Addiction Recovery Blog - December 4, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Addiction Recovery Author Tags: Opiate Treatment Source Type: blogs
