| Article
Leftover medications from postsurgical pain management are a contributor to the crisis of opioid abuse, misuse, and diversion. But findings from a recent randomized clinical trial led by PAINWeek faculty member Chad Brummett, MD, suggest a possible approach to increasing the likelihood that patients...
| Article
Findings from what the authors term “the most up-to-date and most comprehensive clinical review of endocrine effects of long-term opioid use” suggest that chronic opioid therapy may be associated with insufficient levels of testosterone and cortisol in many individuals. Author Amir Zamanipoor...
| Article
A committee convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has issued a report that examines the evidence for medication-based treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) and outlines the impediments that providers and patients currently face to accessing care. The authors...
| Article
An article in yesterday’s edition of Pain Network News summarized conclusions from a recently conducted survey of healthcare providers on the impact of the CDC prescribing guideline on their patients and their practice. The news wasn’t good. To the overall question “Has the CDC guideline improved...
| Podcast
The shift away from opioid use in medication management for chronic pain has changed the dynamic of opioid prescribing in many ways. Now, more than ever, prescribers are under the microscope regarding selection of opioids and doses as well as clinical documentation and appropriate action based on...
| Article
Despite what the media and regulatory agencies and politicians say about there being an opioid epidemic, it’s not a single entity as most people would want to believe. It makes it seem as if a single action is going to solve it when in actuality it’s more than one thing, and that requires different...
| Article
A study of heroin users in Baltimore concludes that most are aware that fentanyl is likely present in the drug they are using while also acknowledging their unpreparedness to handle an overdose event that is likely to result from their activity. Researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of...
| Video
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...
| Article
An editorial appearing earlier this week in the Journal of Pain Research and coauthored by senior PAINWeek faculty member Michael Schatman, PhD, CPE, DASPE, advocates for a fresh approach to threading the needle between efforts to address the crisis of opioid abuse and the legitimate needs of...
| Article
Although medication assisted treatment offers great promise for survivors of opioid overdose, a new study led by researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reports that it is being substantially underapplied at the epicenter of the opioid crisis. The study of nonfatal opioid...