From the Chronicle of Social Change. New Pennsylvania Law Requires Notifications on All Drug-Exposed Babies by Marisol Zarate The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services will hear about every child born in the state that is exposed to drugs at birth, thanks to a bill signed into law this month by Gov. Tom Wolf (D). According to […]
Treatment
Effective Treatments for Opioid Use Disorder Are Underutilized
From NIH. NIH research confirms effective treatments for opioid use disorder are underutilized A National Institutes of Health-funded study found that treatment of opioid use disorder with either methadone or buprenorphine following a nonfatal opioid overdose is associated with significant reductions in opioid related mortality. The research, published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was […]
Promising therapy’ for alcohol abuse
From Science Daily. Alcohol abuse is among the leading causes of preventable death in the United States, killing more than 88,000 people a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That total is higher than the combined death tolls of HIV/AIDS, gun violence and car crashes. Despite this, current medications are not highly effective […]
FDA Approves First Drug Derived from Marijuana
From NIDA. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Epidiolex® (cannabidiol, or CBD), a medication extracted from marijuana, for the treatment of two severe pediatric seizure disorders, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. CBD is a compound typically found in very small quantities in the marijuana plant, and it has been of interest to scientists and the […]
Naloxone Recall—Two Lots From Hospira Recalled Due to Particulate Matter
Recall from the FDA Hospira Issues a Voluntary Nationwide Recall for Two Lots of Naloxone Hydrochloride Injection, USP, in the Carpuject™ Syringe System due to the Potential Presence of Particulate Matter Hospira, Inc., a Pfizer company, is voluntarily recalling lots 72680LL and 76510LL of Naloxone Hydrochloride Injection, USP, 0.4 mg/mL, 1 mL in 2.5 mL, […]
Surprise added benefit of an alcohol addiction medication
From Yale News Drug to Treat Alcohol Addiction Also Helps with Suppression of HIV by Ziba Kashef A medication commonly prescribed to treat alcohol use disorder also appears to help maintain or improve suppression of HIV among individuals at risk for relapse receiving HIV antiretroviral treatment, Yale researchers said. In a new study, a research […]
Opioid therapy may not always work for chronic pain
From NIH NIH study explains why opioid therapy may not always work well for chronic pain Researchers have shown that pain-induced changes in the rat brain’s opioid receptor system may explain the limited effectiveness of opioid therapy in chronic pain and may play a role in the depression that often accompanies it. These findings clearly […]
First FDA-Approved Medication for Opioid Withdrawal
From NIDA. NIDA-Supported Science Leads to First FDA-Approved Medication for Opioid Withdrawal In 2016, 115 Americans died every day from an overdose involving prescription or illicit opioids. Addiction to any drug has multiple components—altered functioning of the reward system, learned associations with drug cues that promote preoccupation and craving, and changes to prefrontal circuits necessary for proper exertion […]
Study upends conventional view of opioid mechanism of action
From NIDA. NIH-funded scientists find new molecular target for developing safer pain medications. A new discovery shows that opioids used to treat pain, such as morphine and oxycodone, produce their effects by binding to receptors inside neurons, contrary to conventional wisdom that they acted only on the same surface receptors as endogenous opioids, which are […]
All of Us study to gather data from a million Americans
From NIDA. Million-Participant NIH Study Could Yield Important Insights into Addiction and Pain We are on the verge of a new era in medicine, one that truly treats the patient as an individual and as a participant in their own care. New data-gathering and analytic capabilities are enabling the kinds of massive, long-term studies needed […]