What Are Opioid Overdose Signs?
On average, 130 Americans die from an opioid overdose every day. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers opioid overdose an epidemic in the United States, estimating it responsible for nearly 68 percent of 70,000 drug-related deaths in 2017. Understanding the effects of opioids can prevent opioid overdose, and knowing the opioid overdose signs can save lives.
What Are Opioids?
Opioids are a class of drugs naturally found in the opium poppy plant. Opioid drugs reduce pain by binding to opioid receptors in your brain, spinal cord and other areas of the body, creating morphine-like effects.
The CDC ide...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - November 21, 2019 Category: Addiction Authors: Jaclyn Uloth Tags: Addiction Heroin Painkiller Substance Abuse drug overdose opiate opiate abuse opiate addiction opiates opioid opioids Source Type: blogs
A call to increase the availability of the Butrans patch
Janelle had overdosed 32 times. Fentanyl coursed through her veins as she was given naloxone (Narcan) for the 32nd time in the ER, from the police, from a bystander. She could never get off of fentanyl. It had made her feel warm and numbed her from the trauma and horrors she had grown accustomed to. When […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 20, 2019 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/cara-zimmerman" rel="tag" > Cara Zimmerman, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions Psychiatry Source Type: blogs
Evidence Pours More Cold Water on The False Narrative That Prescriptions Caused the Opioid Crisis
Jeffrey A. SingerA new study reported in the November 1, 2019Annals of Emergency Medicine pours more cold water on the false but persistent narrative that the opioid overdose crisis was caused by doctors prescribing opioids to patients in pain.This prospective cohort study by researchers in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine followed 484 “opioid naïve” patients prescribed opioids for acute pain upon release from the emergency department during a six month period. The statewide prescription drug monitoring program was employed in addition to regular follow up telephone inter...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 20, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Mandated Queries of the Florida Prescription Drug Monitoring Program: A Three-Month Experience from a Cancer Center-Based Outpatient Palliative Medicine Clinic
This article represents the findings from the queries over the first three months ’ queries and brings further clarity to our initial findings.Methods This quality improvement (QI) project was reviewed and approved by the Orlando Health/UFHealth Cancer Center Joint Oncology Committee for 2018-19. We began recording results of all E-FORSCE queries occurring after the law ’s implementation of July 1, 2018 through September 30, 2018. We informed each patient that the PDMP query had become mandatory in Florida, and we discussed the results of each query with each patient. Each query examined the last 12 months of the patie...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - November 18, 2019 Category: Palliative Care Tags: kollas opioid pain quality improvement statte Source Type: blogs
What Are Sleeping Pill Side Effects?
Insomnia can be a disruptive condition that affects your entire life. When you aren’t able to sleep at night, it can negatively impact issues in almost every area of your life and well-being. If you are taking sleeping pills or are thinking about starting to take sleeping pills, make sure you know as much as possible about all the sleeping pill side effects.
What Are Sleeping Pills and How Do They Work?
Sleeping pills are used to treat insomnia. According to the National Sleep Foundation, insomnia is described as difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, even when a person has the chance to do so. People with insomni...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - November 15, 2019 Category: Addiction Authors: Jaclyn Uloth Tags: Addiction to Pharmaceuticals Sleep healthy sleep insomnia sleep aids sleep and chronobiology laboratory sleep deprivation sleep disorder treatment sleep disorders sleep duration sleep habits sleeping sleeping pills sleeplessness Source Type: blogs
What is the Definition of “Opioid”?
What is the Definition of “Opioid”?
The definition of opioid is as follows: Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, and many others.
Opioids work by interacting with the opioid receptors on nerve cells in the body and brain. By interacting with these receptors, opioids medications are able to cut off communication between the pain point on the body to the brain. This chemical interaction gives it’s users pain relief that is too great for over-t...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - November 15, 2019 Category: Addiction Authors: Jaclyn Uloth Tags: Addiction to Pharmaceuticals fentanyl heroin heroin addiction opiate opiate abuse opiate addiction opiates opioid opioids Source Type: blogs
Barriers to Recovery During the Holidays
Addiction is a chronic, progressive condition that requires treatment to overcome. However, a large percentage of people who need treatment do not seek it. There are several reasons for this, but there seems to be even more of a reluctance to get help around the holidays. If you or someone you love is experiencing addiction and are finding roadblocks keep popping up, keep reading for the extra barriers to recovery during the holidays and how to overcome them.
Traditions and Festivities
One of the major barriers to recovery during the holidays is that people simply do not want to miss out on all the holiday traditions and ...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - November 11, 2019 Category: Addiction Authors: Jaclyn Uloth Tags: Uncategorized addiction help call for help family family support holiday holiday parties holidays treatment Source Type: blogs
Device Detects Opioid Overdose, Arouses Patients Out of Respiratory Arrest
Med-botics, a firm based in Colorado Springs, won FDA Breakthrough Device status for its Oxalert EPO (Enhanced Pulse Oximeter), a device developed to prevent respiratory arrest from opioid overdoses.
Post-op patients and others on heavy opioid therapy can stop breathing, which can lead to death if not monitored carefully. The Oxalert EPO monitors patient SpO2 (oxygen saturation) levels and if those fall below 90%, the device attempts to arouse the patient using audible notifications via headphones, gentle electric shocks, or a combination of the two.
The device is worn on the wrist, much like other pulse oximeters. T...
Source: Medgadget - November 5, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Anesthesiology Critical Care Emergency Medicine Surgery Source Type: blogs
Cost of Opioid Treatment
When an individual realizes they need to receive treatment in order to overcome their opioid addiction, roadblocks begin to emerge. These roadblocks to recovery can be anything from family and home life logistics, work and job responsibilities, and the cost of opioid treatment. While the cost of opioid treatment might seem like a large investment, it is important to understand what goes into the cost of opioid treatment and the value it brings in the long run compared to the cost of addiction.
Cost of Untreated Opioid Use Disorder
Before understanding the cost of opioid treatment, it is important to understand the costs i...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - November 5, 2019 Category: Addiction Authors: Jaclyn Uloth Tags: Addiction Addiction Recovery Painkiller Substance Abuse health care costs mental health costs opiate opiate abuse opiate addiction opiates opioid opioids outpatient residential rehab Source Type: blogs
War on Drugs Meets War on Vaping--This Won't End Well
Jeffrey A. SingerLast summer, Brian Besser, Drug Enforcement Administration District Agent in charge of Utah, told reporters that Mexican drug cartels have “all of a sudden gotten involved in this vape cartridge industry, and reasonably so, because they know they are going to make money off of it.”This makes sense. Prohibition incentivizes innovations in the production and distribution of illicit substances to make detection more difficult. It is very hard to identify illicit drugs that are processed in liquid form and combined with scented juices in vaping cartridges.On November 1, Agent Besserinformed reporters of ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 4, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
An Overdose that Happens Hours Later
A 15-year-old girl was brought to the emergency department by EMS after a seizure witnessed by her mother. She admitted that she had ingested "a handful of pills" in a suicide attempt five hours earlier. The mother said her daughter had a history of cutting but no prior suicide attempts.Her past medical history was significant for depression, for which she took bupropion XL, and she reported past alcohol and marijuana use. Her initial vital signs were a temperature of 97.9°F, a pulse of 162 bpm, a blood pressure of 127/65 mm Hg, a respiratory rate of 14 bpm, and a pulse ox of 100% on room air. Her exam was si...
Source: The Tox Cave - November 1, 2019 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Why your doctor may be concerned about prescribing benzodiazepines
As an academic psychiatrist who treats people with anxiety and trauma, I often hear questions about a specific class of medications called benzodiazepines. I also often receive referrals for patients who are on these medications and reluctant to discontinue them. There has been increasing attention into long-term risks of benzodiazepines, including potential for addiction, overdose, […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 29, 2019 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/arash-javanbakht" rel="tag" > Arash Javanbakht, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Meds Psychiatry Source Type: blogs
Drones Deliver Lifesaving Therapy in Brooklyn Faster than Ambulances
At the just concluded American Academy of Pediatrics 2019 National Conference & Exhibition, research was presented demonstrating that within busy Brooklyn, New York, drones can arrive at the site of an emergency consistently faster than a conventional ambulance.
This was accomplished by performing flights using an aerial drone that mimicked the same point-to-point journeys that ambulances from one hospital previously made. The data about the ambulance trips were gathered from a public database, while the flights were performed within a period of a few weeks, including during rush hours. A commercial drone was used f...
Source: Medgadget - October 29, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Emergency Medicine News Public Health Telemedicine Source Type: blogs
Detox Before the Holiday Season
Why Should I Detox Before the Holiday Season?
While many individuals suffering from addiction wait until after the holidays to get clean, detoxing before the holiday season is an even better idea. Staying sober during the holidays can be difficult, but entering the season without drugs or alcohol in your system will help you resist any temptations this indulgent time of year might present and start 2020 off right! Here’s what to expect if you detox before the holidays.
Reasons to Detox Before the Holiday Season
The general public saves resolutions for New Year’s Eve – but by committing to detox before the holiday sea...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - October 25, 2019 Category: Addiction Authors: Jaclyn Uloth Tags: Addiction Detox Resources for Alcohol and Drugs/Opiates Drug Rehab Information alcohol detox drug detox holiday parties holidays medical detox medicated-assisted detox prescription drug detox Source Type: blogs
