Report from the Council of Economic Advisers. The Underestimated Cost of the Opioid Epidemic Executive Summary November 2017 The opioid drug problem has reached crisis levels in the United States—in 2015, over 33,000 Americans died of a drug overdose involving opioids. CEA finds that previous estimates of the economic cost of the opioid crisis greatly […]
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Chronic Pain Common Among Those Who OD on Opioids
From HealthDay. Click here to view the original article. By Alan Mozes More than 60 percent of opioid overdose deaths involve people who suffer from chronic pain, a new analysis reveals. Many of them also struggled with depression or anxiety, the investigators found. The findings stem from a study that examined the medical backgrounds […]
NPR: Is There A Way To Keep Using Opioid Painkillers And Reduce Risk?
From NPR. by Allison Aubrey Jon McHann, 56, got started on prescription opioids the way a lot of adults in the U.S. did: He was in pain following an accident. In his case, it was a fall. “I hit my tailbone just right, and created a severe bulging disc” that required surgery, McHann says. McHann, […]
Survey: nearly half of Americans have a family member or close friend who’s been addicted to drugs
From Vox. Click here for the original article. by German Lopez It’s a statistic that shows America’s drug addiction crisis is truly an epidemic. This is America on a drug addiction epidemic: Nearly half of US adults have a close friend or family member who’s been addicted to drugs. That comes from a Pew survey […]
Marijuana use is associated with an increased risk of prescription opioid misuse and use disorders
From NIH NIDA. To see the original article, click here. Science Spotlight New research suggests that marijuana users may be more likely than nonusers to misuse prescription opioids and develop prescription opioid use disorder. The study was conducted by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, […]
The First Count of Fentanyl Deaths in 2016: Up 540% in Three Years
From the NY Times. Click here to view original article and graphs. by Josh Katz The first governmental account of nationwide drug deaths in 2016 shows overdose deaths growing even faster than previously thought. Drug overdoses killed roughly 64,000 people in the United States last year, according to the first governmental account of nationwide drug deaths to […]
New digital press kit on the opioids crisis from NIH
From NIH: NIH has a new digital press kit on the opioids crisis, with information, images, and videos. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/opioids-digital-press-kit
Opioid Crisis: NIH Launches New Push to Fight Epidemic
From NBC News. To read the full article, click here. by Maggie Fox The National Institutes of Health announced a new push Wednesday to fight the opioid crisis, with fresh efforts to develop better drugs to fight addiction, to treat pain, and to stop overdoses. The giant agency — the world’s biggest funder of medical […]
‘Drugged Driving’ Surpasses Drunken Driving
From CNN. To read the full article, click here. ‘Drugged Driving’ Surpasses Drunken Driving Among Drivers Killed in Crashes, Report Finds by Robert Jimison Driving while on drugs was associated with more deaths in 2015 than driving with alcohol in one’s system, a new report found. Still, some safety experts caution that drunken driving remains […]
Congress Is on the Verge of Passing a Landmark Mental Health Bill
From Fortune.com, by Sy Mukherjee The legislation passed the House in a near-unanimous vote. Soon after the 2012 massacre of 20 schoolchildren and six adults in Newtown, Conn., advocacy groups called for nationwide reforms on two major issues: gun violence prevention and mental health care. While progress on the former remains elusive in a sharply […]