Drugs can interact with one another in ways that are harmful. A study finds that taking oxycodone with certain SSRIs can make an opioid overdose more likely.
Opioids can help reduce the amount of medication needed to achieve anesthesia.
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Non-opioid directives allow patients to refuse opioids in all health care settings. For surgical procedures that require anesthesia, however, this may do more harm than good.
The improper prescription of opioids for pain treatment is one of the central drivers of the opioid epidemic.
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Ending the opioid epidemic requires addressing not only treatment gaps in addiction and overdose, but also inadequate pain management.
Naloxone can prevent deaths from opioid overdose, but there is no way to reverse the effects of benzodiazepine overdose without risk.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward)
Fentanyl adulteration led to the replacement of heroin in the unregulated drug supply of British Columbia. Now that benzodiazepines are present in many opioids, are we headed towards a ‘new normal?’
One potential way to make opioids less addictive is to make them target injured tissue rather than the healthy brain.
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While the COVID-19 pandemic raged on, the opioid epidemic got worse as drug overdose deaths soared. New research proposes a way to chemically modify opioids to reduce the risk of addiction.
The Biden administration can make significant changes in health care for Americans.
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The 2020 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine goes to the discoverers of the hepatitis C virus. There’s an effective cure but homelessness and the opioid epidemic are driving a surge in infections.
On average, more than 130 Americans die from an opioid overdose every day.
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About 1 in 4 people prescribed an opioid for pain end up abusing it. New methods to reduce the need for opioids after surgery have been shown to work – and thus minimize the need for such drugs.
While critics accuse companies facing lots of lawsuits of using bankruptcy as a sort of ‘get of jail free card,’ the reality of the legal procedure is more complicated.
Every state bears the burden of the opioid crisis.
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State governments are leading the charge against opioid makers over their role in the epidemic. A team of researchers at Penn State examined just how much the crisis has cost them.
Women who are sexually assaulted by their partners or other men sometimes turn to opioids to numb themselves.
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OxyContin maker Purdue has reportedly been mulling a bankruptcy filling, just as the first of around 2,000 lawsuits against it prepares to go to trial.
Classified advertisement for Leslie Keeley’s Gold Cure.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chicago Tribune, July 21, 1884
Jonathan S. Jones, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Considered in historical context, Purdue’s plan to peddle opioid addiction medicines to vulnerable people is not so surprising. Gilded-Age pharmaceutical companies used similar strategies.
The Chronic Pain Association of Canada has received money from Eli Lilly Canada Inc., Purdue Canada Inc. and Merck Frosst Canada. A blog post on the association’s website contains messages favourable to increased opioid use.
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For many who know someone who has lost a loved one, it can be hard to know what to say or how to respond. For those who have lost a loved one, the silence can be deafening. Some things to keep in mind.
Pain medication such as oxycodone often helps cancer patients deal with intense pain after treatment, but it also can lead to abuse.
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The opioid epidemic has hit parts of Appalachia very hard’ places where cancer rates are high. Many patients are surviving cancer treatment only to become addicted.