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
Politics, Confirmation Bias, and Opioids
This post co-authored with Rafael Fonseca, MD, Chairman of the Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZMuch has been written about how politics and ideology influence research funding, suppress research in certain areas, and lead to the cherry-picking and misrepresentation of evidence in support of a narrative or agenda. Science journalist John Tierney explored “The Real War on Science” in an excellent essay in City Journal in 2016. Reflecting on this phenomenon in 2011,Patrick J. Michaels stated:The process is synergistic and self-fulfilling. Periodicals like Science are what academia uses to define the...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 7, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer 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
Do you have a Bagel Brain?
We can link grain consumption with causing or worsening some of the most mysterious brain disorders that have eluded the medical community for years, such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, depression, bipolar disorder, and, more recently, autism and ADHD.
Are you and your kids unknowingly under the influence of opiates? Opiates come disguised in many forms.
Grains contain opiates. Not figuratively, but quite literally. These opiates are not too different from morphine or heroin. Yes, wheat and grains, cleverly disguised as a multigrain loaf of bread to make sandwiches or a hot, steamy plate of macaroni and cheese for the ...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - July 12, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: News & Updates adhd bipolar disorder brain fog concentration Depression diy health Dr. Davis epilepsy grain-free headaches Inflammation mind mood swings OCD opiates schizophrenia undoctored wheat belly Wheat Belly Tot Source Type: blogs
" Hope in a Bottle " - Components of Purdue Pharma Stealth Marketing Campaign for Oxycontin Revealed by Legal Documents from Tennessee
Introduction: Disinformation and Stealth Marketing CampaignsBack in the distant past the US government made some attempt to hold big health care corporations to account for misleading marketing practices. We learned a lot about these practices from documents revealed in the resulting litigation, and in particular, about stealthy, deceptive systematicmarketing,lobbying, andpolicy advocacy campaigns on behalf of big health care organizations, often pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. For example, in 2012 wefound out about the stealth marketing campaign used by GlaxoSmithKline to sell its a...
Source: Health Care Renewal - July 8, 2018 Category: Health Management Tags: deception disinformation narcotics perverse incentives propaganda public relations Purdue Pharma stealth marketing Source Type: blogs
Why Addicts Are Often Lonely People
Addiction is an incredibly lonely disease. However, we typically associate addicts with two extremes when it comes to sociability. On the one hand we imagine the stereotypical “life of the party” who abuses substances to become sociable, friendly, and functional, or we have the depressive addict who takes substances alone, substituting healthy interpersonal relationships for chemicals. The truth is that most addicts may fall somewhere along this spectrum, but they all experience extreme feelings of isolation.
As anyone who has suffered from addiction can vouch for, having a crippling reliance on substances can stem fr...
Source: World of Psychology - June 28, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Matthew Boyle Tags: Addiction Alcoholism Communication Family Friends Recovery Substance Abuse Treatment Loneliness self medicating Social Isolation Social Withdrawal Source Type: blogs
I Guess This Means The Federal Government Is Moving Forward With RTPM.
This popped up last week:Health to build national data exchange for prescription trackingBy Justin Hendry on Jun 21, 2018 6:54AM For real-time monitoring system.The Department of Health will establish a national data exchange for transferring prescription information between states and territories in real-time.The exchange is the first piece of work for the national prescription monitoring system, which was funded with $16.4 million last year to target the misuse of certain prescription drugs.The system will be used to instantly alert pharmacists and doctors if a patient has previously been supplied with prescription-only ...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - June 26, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD 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
Want to dispose of drugs properly? Here ’s how.
According to Bloomberg, Americans spend more on prescription drugs per year than any other country in the world at around $1,100 per person.
Additionally, the CDC reports that four out of five new heroin users started their addiction by using prescription opioid painkillers like hydrocodone or oxycodone.
And we know from the Partnership for a Drug-free America that students and young adults oftentimes start their drug experimentation by taking unused medications from either their parent’s or grandparent’s medicine cabinets.
So, with the above information and the responsibility we all have to help improve America’s dr...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 7, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/dennis-wichern" rel="tag" > Dennis Wichern < /a > Tags: Meds Medications Practice Management Source Type: blogs
Addiction Treatment ‘Science’ and Dead Rats
In my last post I teased that I would write about fake science. I’ll try to make it interesting.
The internet allows everyone to do research about symptoms and treatments for any condition. If not for need for prescriptions, people could act as their own doctors. But a huge dose of caution is necessary before anyone takes that path.
Realize first that doctors don’t treat themselves or even their family members. The saying that ‘a person representing himself in court has a fool for a lawyer’ applies double in healthcare. Treating someone close to one’s self introduces a bias that is har...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - May 23, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Jeffrey Junig MD PhD Tags: Education Pharma pharmacology Research treatment alcohol treatment fake science FDA approval nutritional supplements Source Type: blogs
Addiction Treatment 'Science' and Dead Rats
In my last post I teased that I would write about fake science. I’ll try to make it interesting.
The internet allows everyone to do research about symptoms and treatments for any condition. If not for need for prescriptions, people could act as their own doctors. But a huge dose of caution is necessary before anyone takes that path.
Realize first that doctors don’t treat themselves or even their family members. The saying that ‘a person representing himself in court has a fool for a lawyer’ applies double in healthcare. Treating someone close to one’s self introduces a bias that is har...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - May 23, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: admin Tags: Education Pharma pharmacology Research treatment alcohol treatment fake science FDA approval nutritional supplements Source Type: blogs
Addiction Treatment, Science, and Dead Rats
In my last post I teased that I would write about fake science. I’ll try to make it interesting.
The internet allows everyone to do research about symptoms and treatments for any condition. If not for need for prescriptions, people could act as their own doctors. But a huge dose of caution is necessary before anyone takes that path.
Realize first that doctors don’t treat themselves or even their family members. The saying that ‘a person representing himself in court has a fool for a lawyer’ applies double in healthcare. Treating someone close to one’s self introduces a bias that is har...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - May 23, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: admin Tags: Education Pharma pharmacology Research treatment alcohol treatment fake science FDA approval nutritional supplements Source Type: blogs
Addiction Treatment, Science, and Dead Rats
In my last post I teased that I would write about fake science. I’ll try to make it interesting.
The internet allows everyone to do research about symptoms and treatments for any condition. If not for need for prescriptions, people could act as their own doctors. But a huge dose of caution is necessary before anyone takes that path.
Realize first that doctors don’t treat themselves or even their family members. The saying that ‘a person representing himself in court has a fool for a lawyer’ applies double in healthcare. Treating someone close to one’s self introduces a bias that is har...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - May 23, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: admin Tags: Education Pharma pharmacology Research treatment alcohol treatment fake science FDA approval nutritional supplements Source Type: blogs
