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Counties in California sue manufacturers of opioid analgesics
This week, two counties in California sues five manufacturers of opioid analgesics, accusing them of carrying out a “campaign of deception” to boost sales of their products. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times:
In sweeping language reminiscent of the legal attack against the tobacco industry, the lawsuit alleges the drug companies have reaped blockbuster profits by manipulating doctors into believing the benefits of narcotic painkillers outweighed the risks, despite “a wealth of scientific evidence to the contrary.” The effort “opened the floodgates” for such drugs and “...
Source: The Poison Review - May 25, 2014 Category: Toxicology Authors: Leon Tags: Medical lawsuit opiates opioid analgesics pain as fifth vital sign Source Type: news
OIG: 1 in 3 Medicare Users Received Opioid Prescriptions in 2015
CHICAGO (AP) — Nearly 12 million Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for an opioid painkiller last year at a cost of $4.1 billion, according to a federal report that shows how common the addictive drugs are in many older Americans' medicine cabinets.
With an overdose epidemic worsening, nearly one-third of Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for commonly abused opioids such as OxyContin and fentanyl in 2015. Those who did received an average of five such prescriptions or refills, according to the report from the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of&n...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - June 22, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: CARLA K. JOHNSON, AP Medical Writer Tags: News Patient Care Source Type: news
Study: Doctors Who Prescribe More Opioids Make More Money
This study suggests that conflicts of interest with the pharmaceutical industry may influence oncologists in high-stakes treatment decisions for patients with cancer,” the authors concluded.
Some studies have looked at whether the amount of money a doctor receives makes a difference. Studies by researchers at Yale University, the George Washington University Milken Institute of Public Health and Harvard Medical School have all found that the more money physicians are paid by pharmaceutical companies, the more likely they are to prescribe certain drugs.
Dr. Patrice Harris, a spokeswoman for the American Medical Associ...
Source: WBZ-TV - Breaking News, Weather and Sports for Boston, Worcester and New Hampshire - March 12, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Health – CBS Boston Tags: Health News Local TV opioid crisis opioids Source Type: news
Why Not Pot? A Review of the Brain-based Risks of Cannabis
Conclusion
Evaluating the potential harms of a commonly used drug—especially a complex substance like marijuana—is a challenging but vital task. Fully informed awareness of both the potential and proven benefits and the potential and proven harms of marijuana are necessary in order to have rational discussions with patients, teens, and decision makers regarding marijuana use. Based on a review of the current literature, we suggest the mnemonic DDUMB (dependence, driving, underachievement, mental illness, and “bad to worse”) as a tool that captures several of the more well-supported, brain-based risks associated wit...
Source: Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience - April 1, 2016 Category: Neuroscience Authors: ICN Online Editor Tags: Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Child Adol Mental Disorders Cognition Current Issue Medical Issues Neurologic Systems and Symptoms Psychiatry Psychopharmacology Review Substance Use Disorders Cannabis dependence drug-related har Source Type: research
The money and influence behind “Pain: the 5th vital sign”
“Last year, [Philip Seymour Hoffman] checked into a rehabilitation program for about 10 days, a move that came after a reliance on prescription pills led to a return to heroin, after what he said had been a clean period spanning two decades.” New York Times February 4, 2014
The death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman from a drug overdose earlier this week brings into focus not only the recent resurgence of heroin use, but also the dangers of prescription opioid pain relievers. It seems an appropriate time to rerun this post from December 2012.
A must-read article in the Wall Street Journal this weekend focus...
Source: The Poison Review - February 5, 2014 Category: Toxicology Authors: Leon Tags: Medical heroin opiate opioid opioid pain relievers pain the 5th vital sign philip seymour hoffman Source Type: news
Fentanyl: The dangers of this potent “ man-made ” opioid
As we watch the devastation of the opioid crisis escalate in a rising tide of deaths, a lesser known substance is frequently mentioned: fentanyl. Fentanyl’s relative obscurity was shattered with the well-publicized overdose death of pop star Prince. Previously used only as a pharmaceutical painkiller for crippling pain at the end of life or for surgical procedures, fentanyl is now making headlines as the drug responsible for a growing proportion of overdose deaths.
So what is fentanyl and why is it so dangerous?
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, meaning it is made in a laboratory but acts on the same receptors in the b...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - August 5, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Sarah Wakeman, MD, FASAM, Medical Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Substance Use Disorder Initiative Tags: Addiction Behavioral Health Brain and cognitive health Pain Management Prevention Source Type: news
Would Legalizing Medical Marijuana Help Curb The Opioid Epidemic?
This study and a few others provided some evidence regarding the potential positive benefits of legalizing marijuana to reduce opioid use and abuse, but they are still preliminary,” she said in an email.
Dr. Esther Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, was intrigued by the study’s suggestion that access to cannabis might reduce opioid misuse.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that battling the opioid epidemic will require a multi-pronged approach and a good deal of creativity,” Choo, who was not involved in the study, said in an email. “C...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - March 28, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Study Finds Drop In Prescription Drugs In Medical Marijuana States
States looking for a way to reduce Medicare spending and prescription drug use may want to turn to legalizing medical marijuana, a new study suggests.
The District of Columbia and the 17 states that had medical marijuana as an alternative to prescription drugs in 2013 saved an estimated total of $165.2 million in Medicare program and enrollee spending that year, researchers at the University of Georgia reported in the journal Health Affairs this month.
“The results suggest that if all states had implemented medical marijuana the overall savings to Medicare would have been around $468 million,” a press release o...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - July 24, 2016 Category: Science Source Type: news
The 8th Annual Alexander Awards: The Best Tox Reading of 2017
Alexander Gettler
Once again, last year’s outstanding examples of long-form journalism dealing with topics related to medical toxicology were dominated by coverage of the opioid crisis, its origins and the resulting carnage.
The must-read article of the year was “The Family That Built a Empire of Pain,” Patrick Radden Keefe’s massive history of the Sacklers, one of America’s richest clans, much of whose wealth comes from their ownership of Purdue Pharma and the marketing and distribution of Oxycontin.
The article, which appeared in the New Yorker, notes that the clan’s patriarch, Arthur...
Source: The Poison Review - January 2, 2018 Category: Toxicology Authors: Leon Gussow Tags: Medical 2017 Alexander awards opioids Purdue Pharma Sackler Source Type: news
Reducing EMR Default Settings for Opioids Prescribed After Surgery May Help Address Opioid Epidemic
Lowering the default number of opioid pills prescribed through an electronic medical record system to patients undergoing outpatient operations can significantly reduce the mean amount of opioid analgesia prescriptions, reports astudy published today inJAMA Surgery. The findings point to a low-cost and potentially scalable intervention to continue to decrease the overprescribing of opioids.On May 18, 2017, the Yale New Haven Health System, which uses a unified electronic medical record (EMR) system, lowered the default number of pills on all electronic opioid prescriptions from 30 to 12. To evaluate the impact of this chan...
Source: Psychiatr News - July 18, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Tags: Alexander S. Chiu David D. Q. Zhang electronic medical records JAMA Surgery opioids prescribing Source Type: research
Absolute must-read: LA Times on the myth of OxyContin’s 12-hour analgesic effect
Quick: how long does a dose of Oxycontin provide pain relief?
Most clinicians would probably say 12 hours, since the drug was extensively marketed as a twice-daily opioid analgesic and the manufacturer — Purdue Pharma — cited this originally unique convenience factor as justifying its high cost, which could exceed $630 a bottle.
In an explosive and masterfully written investigative piece by Harriet Ryan, Lisa Girion and Scott Glover, the Los Angeles Times reported this week that in most patients the duration of the analgesic effect for OxyContin does not last nearly as long as claimed, and that this discrepancy may b...
Source: The Poison Review - May 8, 2016 Category: Toxicology Authors: Leon Gussow Tags: Best of TPR Medical 12-hour myth Los Angeles Times opiate opioid addiction oxycontin Purdue Pharma Source Type: news
OIG: 1 in 3 Medicare Users Received Opioid Prescriptions in 2015
CHICAGO (AP) — Nearly 12 million Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for an opioid painkiller last year at a cost of $4.1 billion, according to a federal report that shows how common the addictive drugs are in many older Americans' medicine cabinets.
With an overdose epidemic worsening, nearly one-third of Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for commonly abused opioids such as OxyContin and fentanyl in 2015. Those who did received an average of five such prescriptions or refills, according to the report from the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of&n...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - June 22, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: CARLA K. JOHNSON, AP Medical Writer Tags: News Patient Care Source Type: news
Regulators Say Herbal Supplement Kratom Contains Opioids
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health authorities say an herbal supplement promoted as an alternative pain remedy contains the same chemicals found in opioids, the addictive family of drugs at the center of a national addiction crisis.
The Food and Drug Administration analysis, published Tuesday, makes it more likely that the supplement, kratom, could be banned by the federal government.
The FDA also said it has identified 44 reports of death involving kratom since 2011, up from 36 reported in November.
Sold in various capsules and powders, kratom has gained popularity in the U.S. as a treatment for pain, anxiety and drug depend...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - February 8, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Matthew Perrone, Associated Press Tags: Patient Care News Source Type: news
