HHS Press Release HHS Announces New Action Plan to Lay Foundation for Safe Importation of Certain Prescription Drugs The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today that HHS and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are publishing a Safe Importation Action Plan – PDF* that outlines two potential pathways that would lay the […]
Spotlight
See how many opioid pills were sold in your town
From the Washington Post Drilling into the DEA’s pain pill database For the first time, a database maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration that tracks the path of every single pain pill sold in the United States — by manufacturers and distributors to pharmacies in every town and city — has been made public. The […]
Digital Therapy to Treat SUDs
From PsychiatryAdvisor Using Digital Therapeutics to Treat Substance Use Disorders More than 20 million adults struggle with a substance use disorder, according to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shared by Smita Das, MD, PhD, MPH, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, […]
New SAMHSA Criminal Justice Publications
SAMHSA recently released four publications on mental illness and the criminal justice system. Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT): A Service Delivery Model for Individuals With Serious Mental Illness Involved With the Criminal Justice System – This brief provides an overview of Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT)—an intensive service delivery model intended for people with serious […]
Cultural Competency for Behavioral Health Professionals
New Free E-Learning Program on Cultural Competency for Behavioral Health Professionals The U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (HHS OMH) announced a new, free and accredited e-learning program: Improving Cultural Competency for Behavioral Health Professionals. The program, available via OMH’s Think Cultural Health website, is designed to develop behavioral health providers’ knowledge and skills related […]
WHO classifies gaming disorder as behavioral addiction
From NPR Is ‘Gaming Disorder’ An Illness? WHO Says Yes, Adding It To Its List Of Diseases by Anya Kamenetz They are popular. They are controversial. And now, video games have just become an internationally recognized addiction. On May 25, the World Health Organization officially voted to adopt the latest edition of its International Classification […]
Prescription opioids may not be reason behind high overdose death for veterans
From UPI Heroin, synthetic opioids fuel veterans’ overdose spike, study says By Tauren Dyson The overprescription of opioids to reduce pain may not be driving the high overdose death for veterans, new findings show. Between 2010 and 2016, veteran deaths from opioid overdoses spiked 65 percent, according to a study published Wednesday in American Journal of […]
Historic Donation of HIV Prevention Drugs
From the Washington Post. Drugmaker to donate HIV-prevention pills for as many as 200,000 people by Lenny Bernstein The pharmaceutical company that makes a once-a-day pill that protects users against HIV has agreed to donate enough medication to cover as many as 200,000 people for 11 years, the Trump administration announced Thursday. Gilead Sciences, the […]
Opioid execs guilty of racketeering
From the New York Times. Top Executives of Insys, an Opioid Company, Are Found Guilty of Racketeering By Gabrielle Emanuel and Katie Thomas BOSTON — A federal jury on Thursday found the top executives of Insys Therapeutics, a company that sold a fentanyl-based painkiller, guilty of racketeering charges in a rare criminal prosecution that blamed corporate officials for […]
FDA approves generic naloxone
From the FDA. FDA approves first generic naloxone nasal spray to treat opioid overdose Agency is also taking new steps to support development of over-the-counter and additional generics of naloxone to help reduce opioid overdose deaths, increase access to emergency treatment For Immediate Release: April 19, 2019 The U.S. Food and […]