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Newswise — A specialized pain management program for patients who underwent robotic surgery for urologic cancers resulted in just eight percent going home with narcotics after discharge, compared to 100 percent who would have received them without this enhanced recovery protocol. What’s more, the...
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Newswise — Babies exposed to opioids while their mothers were pregnant with them may need special care even before they start to experience withdrawal symptoms, according to Penn State research.
Researchers from Penn State College of Medicine found that as soon as 24 and 48 hours after birth...
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Newswise — Surgical patients receiving the opioid tramadol have a somewhat higher risk of prolonged use than those receiving other common opioids, new Mayo Clinic research finds. However, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classifies tramadol as a Schedule IV controlled substrance, meaning it...
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Although opioids play a key role in reducing pain when recovering from surgery, some patients transition to chronic users and become dependent on them. In order to find out what situations result in patients continuing to refill their opioid prescriptions after a surgery, Johns Hopkins researchers...
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New research conducted by a team from the School of Social Welfare, Albany University reports an association between nonmedical prescription opioid use (NMPOU) and risk for suicide ideation, planning, and attempt among both younger and older adults. The researchers express particular concern over...
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In a press release issued Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced its approval of the first generic formulation of naloxone and said the agency will prioritize its review of other applications for generic variants of products intended to treat opioid overdose. Douglas...
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Buprenorphine and methadone are the most common medications currently used to treat opioid use disorder; both, however, are also opioids and can result in unwanted side effects. Additionally, treatment with these options often must be continued for months to prevent relapse. But an experimental...
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Conclusions from a recent study on rhesus monkeys suggest that combining opioids with marijuana may be an effective approach to reducing opioid dosage levels and attendant dependency risk while maintaining overall analgesia. The study found that cognitive impairment, including impulsivity and memory...
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With funding provided by a grant from the National Institutes for Health, a research team at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center is seeking to develop a vaccine that would stimulate the patient’s immune system to produce antibodies that would attack an ingested opioid. If successful...
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Michigan OPEN—the Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network—was founded to develop a preventive approach to the opioid epidemic in the state through a focus on reducing acute care prescribing (surgery, dentistry, emergency medicine, and trauma). Addressing opioid prescribing during the acute care period...