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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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A nationwide survey commissioned by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) highlights significant shortcomings in parental understanding of prescription opioids for management of their children’s’ pain. The findings document what the authors term a “conflicted relationship” in which parents...
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Newswise — Philadelphia, Jan. 16, 2019—Opioid drugs prescribed to children for pain relief after a typical pediatric orthopaedic procedure may be significantly overprescribed, according to a new study by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The patients used less than 25...
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Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Veterinary Medicine have noted a 41% increase in opioid prescriptions for small animals over the past decade, a pattern that they highlight as yet another potential contributor to human illicit opioid use...
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New and disheartening statistics on opioid-related suicide and unintentional overdose deaths have emerged from a review and analysis of data by researchers from the University of Michigan. Writing this month in the New England Journal of Medicine, the team concludes that rates of suicide and...
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A 2-year study conducted by a multidisciplinary team of cancer specialists and surgeons from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has concluded that opioids are seldom required for post-surgical pain management. The study followed 1,231 patients who underwent gynecologic or abdominal surgery and...