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I think the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. In the early 2000s, there was this increase in opioid prescribing and use that has led us to the predicament we’re in now with the opioid abuse and misuse epidemic, as they’re calling it. And now no one wants to prescribe them. For our...
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Findings from a recent study suggest that rethinking the delivery mechanism for buprenorphine may enhance its effectiveness in treating opioid use disorder (OUD), now estimated to affect some 2.6 million American patients. The medication is typically delivered sublingually in the form of tablets or...
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Although the CDC has issued recommendations against taking opioids with benzodiazepines, almost 25% of Medicare patients who are prescribed opioids are also getting prescriptions for benzodiazepines. Now, results from a study conducted at the University of Pittsburg School of Pharmacy confirms the...
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Working with mouse models, a research team from Johns Hopkins has discovered that activation of 2 nerve cell receptors in concert with the administration of opioids can significantly reduce the amount of opioid needed to obtain pain relief. This suggests a potential new avenue to forestalling the...
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The terms prescribing guidelines and prescribing rules are often used interchangeably although they really have separate meanings. Guidelines, by their nature, are voluntary recommendations. Whereas prescribing rules are mandatory. It’s important for prescribers to be aware of what exactly the rules...
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Taking advantage of a $500 million congressional addition to its base appropriation for FY2018, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a new research initiative that it describes as “…a bold new trans-NIH initiative called Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL). The HEAL initiative...
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The Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania is currently working on a variety of fronts to address the issue of opioid overdose risk. CHIBE seeks to combine psychology and economics with clinical expertise to...
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Findings from a recent study conducted at Kaiser Permanente Department of Research and Evaluation conclude that when physicians reduce opioid dosage levels for their patients who are on high-dose opioid therapy for chronic pain, levels of patient satisfaction with care do not suffer. Lead author...
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A cross-sectional study published in the July edition of Drug and Alcohol Dependence concludes that the application of dispositional mindfulness may mediate the risk for opioid misuse in patients with chronic pain who are on long-term opioid therapy. The practice can attenuate opioid craving and...
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If I ask patients how satisfied they are with their pain treatment, I think there’s an inverse correlation with whether they’re on opioids or not; and the higher the dose of opioids, the less satisfied they are. In general, I don’t think that they’re a great treatment. I think they’re reserved for a...