| What To Make of a Head-To-Head Test of Addiction Treatments |
NPR HEALTH (11/16) – Addiction specialists caution against reading too much into a new study released this week that compares two popular medications for opioid addiction. This much-anticipated research is the largest study so far to directly compare the widely used treatment Suboxone with relative newcomer Vivitrol. Read more
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| Looking Under the Hood: How Brain Science Informs Addiction Treatment |
HARVARD HEALTH (11/15) – …If we can figure out exactly which genes, proteins, brain regions, and neural connections go awry in substance use disorders (SUDs), we can fix those “broken” parts in the brain and design better long-term approaches to addiction treatment. Read more
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| Drug Enforcement Administration Collects Record Number of Unused Pills as Part of its 14th Prescription Drug Take Back Day |
| JUSTICE DEPARTMENT (11/07) –Americans nationwide did their part to reduce the opioid crisis by bringing the DEA and its more than 4,200 local and tribal law enforcement partners a record-setting 912,305 pounds—456 tons—of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs for disposal at more than 5,300 collection sites. Read more |
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| FDA Clears Nerve Stimulator to Aid Recovery From Opioids |
| WASHINGTON POST (11/15) – U.S. health authorities have cleared a brain-stimulating device for patients suffering from debilitating withdrawal symptoms caused by addiction to heroin and other opioids. The nerve stimulator is the first device to treat such symptoms including joint pain, anxiety, stomach aches and insomnia. Read more |
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 | Adolescent Research: Invitation to Counselors: |
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| The SASSI Institute is conducting a validation study to develop an updated version of our adolescent screening questionnaire. Our aim is to provide practitioners with an effective tool to address the public health epidemic of adolescent prescription opioid, other prescription drug abuse, and SUD more generally. Register to participate online. |
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| For Opiate Addiction, Study Finds Drug-Assisted Treatment is More Effective Than Detox |
| LA TIMES (11/20) – ...Close to 80% of those with an opioid-use disorder weren’t getting any treatment at all in 2015. Of the small sliver of those who did get some treatment, fewer than half in California got the kind of open-ended opioid agonist treatment that addiction researchers widely agree is most likely to lead to abstinence. Read more |
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| White House Says True Cost of Opioid Drug Epidemic in 2015 Was $504bn |
THE GUARDIAN (11/20) – The White House says the true cost of the opioid drug epidemic in 2015 was $504bn, or roughly half a trillion dollars. In an analysis to be released on Monday, the Council of Economic Advisers says the figure is more than six times larger than the most recent estimate. Read more
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| E-Cigarettes Are More Likely to be Used by Alcohol Drinkers and Former Cigarette Smokers |
| SCIENCE DAILY (11/14) – Electronic cigarettes are more frequently used by people who recently quit smoking and alcohol drinkers, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2017, a premier global exchange of the latest advances in cardiovascular science for researchers and clinicians. Read more |
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| Chemists Develop Method To Quickly Screen, Identify Fentanyl and Other Drugs of Abuse |
| MCMASTER DAILY NEWS (11/01) – Researchers at McMaster University have developed a new drug screening technique that could lead to the rapid and accurate identification of fentanyl, as well as a vast number of other drugs of abuse, which up until now have been difficult to detect by traditional urine tests. Read more |
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| The Early Warning Signs of Addiction |
| ASIAN SCIENTIST (11/14) – …They found that transitions into addictive drinking behavior were preceded by predictive ‘early warning signals,’ such as unstable drinking patterns and instability in locomotor circadian rhythms, where the 24-hour cycle is fragmented into what is known as low-frequency ultradian rhythms of a few to several-hour diurnal cycles. Read more |
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| To Fight Opioid Crisis, Florida’s Largest Insurer Stops Covering OxyContin |
MIAMI HERALD (11/06) – That leftover bottle of painkillers in your medicine cabinet is one of the reasons that Florida’s largest health insurance company will stop covering OxyContin, the brand name prescription opioid, beginning Jan. 1. Instead, the insurer will start covering an alternative opioid that isn’t crushable for injection or snorting, reducing its potential for abuse. Read more
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| Heart Failure Tied to Meth Use Rising Among Veterans, Study Finds |
| CNN (11/14) – Heart failure tied to use of methamphetamines is on the rise among US veterans, suggests a preliminary study presented Tuesday at the annual scientific meeting of the American Heart Association. Meth is chemically similar to the nervous system stimulant amphetamine. It is typically inhaled or smoked, swallowed, snorted or injected once dissolved in water or alcohol. Read more |
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| FDA Warns Against Using Kratom for Opioid Addiction |
| CNBC (11/15) – The FDA waded into the debate over the safety of kratom, a botanical substance that advocates say can help reduce symptoms of opioid withdrawal. The regulator said it was aware of 36 deaths associated with kratom, which can have similar effects to narcotics like opioids. Read more |
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| Realistic Rodent Model of Drug Addiction |
| MEDICALXPRESS (11/20) – Drug addiction may not require a habitual relationship with a substance, suggests findings from a new model of cocaine administration in rats that better captures the human experience of obtaining and using drugs. The research, published in Journal of Neuroscience, represents a step towards a translational animal model of addiction that challenges widely held views about drug users. Read more |
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| Babies Are Being Born Addicted to Opioids More Than Ever. Why Don't We Know Anything About Their Prognosis? |
| NBC 10 (11/21) – Niahla is not alone, her doctor says. In fact, according to Dr. Joanna Parga-Belinkie, a neonatalogist at HUP, babies are being born addicted more than ever. Parga-Belinkie is speaking from first-hand experience. She doesn't have raw numbers. That's because, in the midst of America's opioid epidemic, the smallest victims of the disease are not being counted in real time in Pennsylvania. Read more |
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