Op-Ed: Want to reduce opioid use? Nudge the doctors who prescribe them
6 years, 2 months ago

Op-Ed: Want to reduce opioid use? Nudge the doctors who prescribe them

LA Times  

An Orange County doctor was arrested by federal authorities in December on suspicion of illegally prescribing narcotics, “flooding Southern California with huge quantities of opioids,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. For the record: This Op-Ed article wrongly identifies the affiliation of the researchers who found that doctors prescribe fewer opioids if they are notified of patient deaths from overdose. After three months, the doctors who received the letter prescribed 4.5% fewer high-dose opioids and were 7% less likely to start a patient on any opioid. In 2018, Yale researchers inserted a simple trick into the software that doctors in the Yale New Haven Health System use to place prescription orders: They changed the default number of opioid pills from 30 to 12.

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History of this topic

Removing barriers to opioid addiction treatment is critical. So why aren't we doing it?
5 months, 3 weeks ago

Removing barriers to opioid addiction treatment is critical. So why aren't we doing it?

Salon  

There’s a treatment for opioid use disorder that literally saves lives. To do so, we homed in on residential treatment centers across the state of North Carolina, where many North Carolinians living with OUD expect to receive guidance, support and – naturally – lifesaving medical treatment. After a four-month-long audit of private organizations across North Carolina advertising themselves as residential …

Opinion: Surgeons give patients too many opioids. A few simple steps could curb excess prescribing
9 months, 1 week ago

Opinion: Surgeons give patients too many opioids. A few simple steps could curb excess prescribing

LA Times  

America’s opioid epidemic is as bad as it has ever been. Some efforts to curb opioid prescribing have shown promise, including prescription drug monitoring programs, promotion of alternative analgesics, provider education and informing prescribing physicians when their patients die from opioid overdoses. Conventional strategies for curbing excessive opioid prescribing assume that surgeons are rational actors who, whenever they are informed …

I Took Oxy And Fentanyl For Years. Here's What No One Is Telling You About The Opioid Crisis.
1 year, 8 months ago

I Took Oxy And Fentanyl For Years. Here's What No One Is Telling You About The Opioid Crisis.

Huff Post  

The author in the hospital in 2013 just before her high-dose chemotherapy began. I was one of the millions of Americans who needed high doses of opioids while unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies lied and encouraged doctors to over-prescribe OxyContin, while “pill mills” distributed these addictive medications far and wide, and while illegally produced Fentanyl found its way into street drugs like …

Warning issued after dangerous opioid found at scene of suspected drug deaths
1 year, 9 months ago

Warning issued after dangerous opioid found at scene of suspected drug deaths

The Independent  

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “Synthetic opioids are occasionally added to illicit drugs like heroin to enhance the potency, …

Chronic pain patients struggle to get opioid prescriptions filled, even as CDC eases guidelines
2 years ago

Chronic pain patients struggle to get opioid prescriptions filled, even as CDC eases guidelines

CNN  

KHN — Jessica Layman estimates she has called more than 150 doctors in the past few years in her search for someone to prescribe opioids for her chronic pain. The first CDC guidelines “put everybody on notice,” said Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, chair of the American Medical Association’s Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force. Taking into account the perspective of …

Prescriptions for opioids ‘fall by almost half-a-million over last four years’
2 years ago

Prescriptions for opioids ‘fall by almost half-a-million over last four years’

The Independent  

GPs and pharmacists have helped slash prescriptions for potentially addictive opioid drugs by 450,000 in under four years, the latest data suggests. But the charity Versus Arthritis said the medicines could be very helpful for some people with arthritis and “in the UK, opioid addiction is fortunately rare among people with chronic pain”. We know that patients who require prescriptions …

FDA advisers vote in favor of making opioid overdose antidote available over the counter
2 years, 1 month ago

FDA advisers vote in favor of making opioid overdose antidote available over the counter

CNN  

CNN — If the US Food and Drug Administration gives the go-ahead, a nasal spray version of the opioid overdose antidote Narcan may soon be sold in vending machines, big box stores, grocery stores and gas stations across the country. “I’ve lost patients over the years and have watched as many families have been devastated by this rising, worsening and …

I Took Oxy And Fentanyl For Years. Here's What No One Is Telling You About The Opioid Crisis.
2 years, 1 month ago

I Took Oxy And Fentanyl For Years. Here's What No One Is Telling You About The Opioid Crisis.

Huff Post  

The author in the hospital in 2013 just before her high-dose chemotherapy began. I was one of the millions of Americans who needed high doses of opioids while unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies lied and encouraged doctors to over-prescribe OxyContin, while “pill mills” distributed these addictive medications far and wide, and while illegally produced Fentanyl found its way into street drugs like …

Op-Ed: Finally, some promising news on opioids for patients in severe pain
2 years, 3 months ago

Op-Ed: Finally, some promising news on opioids for patients in severe pain

LA Times  

The U.S. remains in the midst of an ever-worsening drug overdose crisis. Meanwhile, physicians have had to balance the risk of criminal prosecution for prescribing opioids against their responsibility to treat patients’ pain. While some doctors were financially incentivized to overprescribe opioids, others caught scrutiny simply for providing relief to patients in debilitating pain. Tragically, recent studies found that chronic …

US agency softens opioid prescribing guidelines for doctors
2 years, 4 months ago

US agency softens opioid prescribing guidelines for doctors

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday softened its guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers. Opioids painkillers can be addictive — even when used under doctors’ orders — and were identified as a big reason for a rise in U.S. drug overdoses that began more than two decades ago. Some modifications were …

CDC updates opioid prescribing guidelines with new recommendations on tapering or continuing prescriptions
2 years, 4 months ago

CDC updates opioid prescribing guidelines with new recommendations on tapering or continuing prescriptions

CNN  

CNN — For the first time since 2016, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its guidelines for clinicians and patients on the use of prescription opioids to treat short-term and long-term pain. Advice for doctors and patients The guidelines recommend that when starting opioid therapy for any pain patient – acute, subacute or chronic – “clinicians …

CDC softens opioid prescribing guidelines for doctors
2 years, 4 months ago

CDC softens opioid prescribing guidelines for doctors

LA Times  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone, above, and other opioid painkillers. The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday softened its guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers. Opioid painkillers can be addictive — even when used under doctors’ orders — and were identified as a big reason …

Advocates seek more say in how opioid settlements are spent
2 years, 6 months ago

Advocates seek more say in how opioid settlements are spent

Associated Press  

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The tattoos on Billie Stafford’s hands — inspired by street art and full of references to her work helping prevent drug-related deaths — have become an indelible memorial to the friend who inked them and the opioid crisis that killed him in April. “They don’t have to come and write 20 names on a wall because everyone’s …

FDA chief’s long-promised opioid review faces skepticism
2 years, 7 months ago

FDA chief’s long-promised opioid review faces skepticism

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — As U.S. opioid deaths mounted in 2016, the incoming head of the Food and Drug Administration promised a “sweeping review” of prescription painkillers in hopes of reversing the worst overdose epidemic in American history. “It seems like people love sort of looking back and fault-finding, but I’m much more interested in learning so we can go forward and …

CDC proposes softer guidance on opioid prescriptions
3 years, 1 month ago

CDC proposes softer guidance on opioid prescriptions

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday proposed changing — and in some instances, softening — guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers. But it also caused some doctors to become too quick to cut off patients taking prescription painkillers and too strict in keeping the drugs from patients who might benefit, CDC …

Pharmaceutical firms want to move on from the opioid crisis. Its victims cannot
3 years, 8 months ago

Pharmaceutical firms want to move on from the opioid crisis. Its victims cannot

The Independent  

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Men made it, but they can’t control it.” …

Doctors who say no to opioid use face threats from patients
4 years, 1 month ago

Doctors who say no to opioid use face threats from patients

Associated Press  

One patient threatened to shoot Dr. Terry Hunt if physical therapy didn’t relieve his pain as effectively as opioids did. So when he heard about Tuesday’s attack at a medical clinic in Buffalo, Minnesota, that left one person dead and four injured, “the first thing I assumed is that it was something to do with pain medication,” said Hunt, who …

Doctors And Dentists Still Flooding U.S. With Opioid Prescriptions
4 years, 8 months ago

Doctors And Dentists Still Flooding U.S. With Opioid Prescriptions

NPR  

Doctors And Dentists Still Flooding U.S. With Opioid Prescriptions Enlarge this image toggle caption Tracy Lee for NPR Tracy Lee for NPR Despite widespread devastation caused by America's opioid epidemic, an investigation by NPR found that doctors and other health care providers still prescribe highly addictive pain medications at rates widely considered unsafe. Listen · 6:56 6:56 Medical Treatments NPR …

Dozens of people charged for illegally distributing millions of opioid pills
5 years, 6 months ago

Dozens of people charged for illegally distributing millions of opioid pills

The Independent  

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Dozens of people - …

How the prescriptions doctors wrote may have helped fuel the U.S. opioid crisis
5 years, 6 months ago

How the prescriptions doctors wrote may have helped fuel the U.S. opioid crisis

LA Times  

More than 75% of patients in the U.S. and Canada filled a prescription for opioids following one of four common surgeries, compared with 11% of Swedes, a new study reports. More than 75% of patients in the U.S. and Canada filled a prescription for opioids following one of four common surgeries, compared with 11% of Swedes, researchers reported Wednesday in …

Dutch deaths due to opioid painkillers rise 50% in four years
5 years, 6 months ago

Dutch deaths due to opioid painkillers rise 50% in four years

Dutch News  

The number of people landing in hospital after using heavy painkillers soared by almost 50% within four years and more people are dying of accidental overdoses in the Netherlands, according to Leiden University researchers. The figures, published on academic website JAMA Network Open, cover the period 2013 to 2017 and show that the number of people prescribed opioid painkillers rose …

Dutch deaths due to opioid painkillers rise 50% in four years
5 years, 6 months ago

Dutch deaths due to opioid painkillers rise 50% in four years

Dutch News  

The number of people landing in hospital after using heavy painkillers soared by almost 50% within four years and more people are dying of accidental overdoses in the Netherlands, according to Leiden University researchers. The figures, published on academic website JAMA Network Open, cover the period 2013 to 2017 and show that the number of people prescribed opioid painkillers rose …

Opioid crisis: Doctors must lead US out of the epidemic
5 years, 6 months ago

Opioid crisis: Doctors must lead US out of the epidemic

CNN  

CNN — Veteran doctors don’t need a blood test to tell when someone is on the verge of a drug overdose. Even worse, too many doctors who didn’t actually believe the hyperbole surrounding opioids still doled out long-term prescriptions, in the same way doctors write antibiotic prescriptions for viral illnesses. Dr. Portenoy, armed with his small study, believed prescription opioids …

As the nation’s opioid crisis grew, the pills got stronger
5 years, 8 months ago

As the nation’s opioid crisis grew, the pills got stronger

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — In 2012, as the death toll from the nation’s opioid crisis mounted, drug companies shipped out enough of the powerful and addictive painkillers for every man, woman and child in the U.S. to have nearly a 20-day supply. “We know that the higher the dose of prescribed opioids, and the longer patients are on them, even for a …

Q&A: Newly public data maps opioid crisis across US
5 years, 8 months ago

Q&A: Newly public data maps opioid crisis across US

Associated Press  

The release of a massive trove of data from lawsuits over the nation’s opioid crisis provides the most detailed accounting to date of the role played by the major pharmaceutical companies and distributors. But the data gives a stunning portrait of how the nation’s deadly public health crisis unfolded year by year, with manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies turning a firehose …

Data show many companies contributed to US opioid crisis
5 years, 8 months ago

Data show many companies contributed to US opioid crisis

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — The maker of OxyContin has been cast as the chief villain in the nation’s opioid crisis. He also noted that the data shows that the places that received the most drugs per capita are the ones with the most overdoses per capita: “It really looks like wherever you spread the most gas, you get the most fires.” At …

Kirsten Gillibrand Faces Opioid Bill Backlash From Disability Community
6 years ago

Kirsten Gillibrand Faces Opioid Bill Backlash From Disability Community

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING Following backlash from patients with chronic pain and people in the disability community, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Wednesday found herself backpedaling on her recently introduced legislation to put a time limit on opioid prescriptions. While the legislation’s text hasn’t been submitted to Congress’ website yet, Gillibrand’s news release specified that the prescription limit was not meant for …

Opioid epidemic spilling over onto roads, study says
6 years, 1 month ago

Opioid epidemic spilling over onto roads, study says

CNN  

CNN — Patients who are prescribed opioids and the clinicians who prescribe themhave more to be concerned about than steadily rising rates of opioid overdoses, according to a new study. As the United States struggles with an opioid epidemic, these findings could affect health care providers’ decision-making processes, the authors say. Study author Dr. Guohua Li, a professor of epidemiology …

FDA Inaction On Deadly Opioids 'Borders On Criminal,' Charges Head Of Advisory Panel
6 years, 1 month ago

FDA Inaction On Deadly Opioids 'Borders On Criminal,' Charges Head Of Advisory Panel

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING The head of a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on opioids has accused the federal agency of looking out for pharmaceutical company income at the tragic cost of public lives, saying the behavior “borders on the criminal.” “As I sit and listen to them in meetings, all I can think about is the clock ticking and …

Opioid-Makers Face Wave of Lawsuits in 2019
6 years, 2 months ago

Opioid-Makers Face Wave of Lawsuits in 2019

NPR  

Opioid-Makers Face Wave of Lawsuits in 2019 Enlarge this image John Moore/Getty Images John Moore/Getty Images The next 12 months might just redefine the way America thinks about and responds to the opioid epidemic that now claims more than 40,000 lives each year. Sponsor Message "Our next battle is to get the documents that are being produced made available to …

Could Prescription Heroin Help Stem Opioid Deaths In The U.S.?
6 years, 3 months ago

Could Prescription Heroin Help Stem Opioid Deaths In The U.S.?

Huff Post  

A tray of supplies at the Insite supervised injection clinic in Vancouver, Canada, where people are permitted to inject illicit drugs in the presence of medical staff. A report released by the nonprofit Rand Corporation this week analyzed the literature on two interventions ― prescription heroin and supervised consumption sites ― that already exist in Europe, Canada and Australia, but …

As opioid death toll worsens, California doctors will soon be required to perform database checks
6 years, 6 months ago

As opioid death toll worsens, California doctors will soon be required to perform database checks

LA Times  

By the time the 59-year-old woman overdosed in the late summer of 2013, she’d been given 75 prescriptions by three primary care doctors, a psychiatrist and a pain specialist in one year. “California created the first system to track prescriptions of the strongest painkillers, but our state fell behind as the opioid crisis grew,” said state Sen. Ricardo Lara, who …

Coroner sent letters to doctors whose patients died of opioid overdoses. Doctors’ habits quickly changed
6 years, 7 months ago

Coroner sent letters to doctors whose patients died of opioid overdoses. Doctors’ habits quickly changed

LA Times  

Addressed directly to the doctor, the letter arrived in a plain business envelope with a return address of the San Diego County medical examiner’s office. And it steered the doctor to an online program designed to help medical professionals who are “dedicated to avoiding prescribing controlled substances when they are likely to do more harm than good.” The letters — …

Sending Letters About Their Patients' Overdoses Changes Doctors' Prescribing Habits
6 years, 7 months ago

Sending Letters About Their Patients' Overdoses Changes Doctors' Prescribing Habits

NPR  

Sending Letters About Their Patients' Overdoses Changes Doctors' Prescribing Habits Enlarge this image toggle caption WILL & DENI MCINTYRE/Getty Images WILL & DENI MCINTYRE/Getty Images For a doctor, learning that a patient has died is often an emotional moment. "What's important about what we've found is that you can do very simple things to change prescribing and make prescribing safer," …

The Government’s Solution To The Opioid Crisis Feels Like A War To Pain Patients
6 years, 7 months ago

The Government’s Solution To The Opioid Crisis Feels Like A War To Pain Patients

Huff Post  

Jay Lawrence, an energetic truck driver in his late 30s, was driving a semitrailer across a bridge when the brakes failed. “And then that they’re denied relief by a doctor with the one medicine proven effective for pain control for 50 centuries.” “The CDC guidelines have been weaponized.” - Dr. Stefan Kertesz The government’s aggressive focus on doctors and patients …

Did drug company payments to doctors help fuel the opioid epidemic?
6 years, 10 months ago

Did drug company payments to doctors help fuel the opioid epidemic?

LA Times  

Health officials hoping to stem the opioid crisis might want to pay attention to what doctors eat for lunch. A new research letter reports that doctors who received free meals and other kinds of payments from pharmaceutical companies tended to prescribe more opioid painkillers to their patients over the course of a year. Then they consulted the Centers for Medicare …

More Americans should carry overdose antidote to fight opioid crisis, says US surgeon general
6 years, 11 months ago

More Americans should carry overdose antidote to fight opioid crisis, says US surgeon general

The Independent  

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The US’s chief doctor wants more Americans to start carrying …

Surgeon General Warns About Opioid Overdose Epidemic, Urging Americans to Carry Naloxone
6 years, 11 months ago

Surgeon General Warns About Opioid Overdose Epidemic, Urging Americans to Carry Naloxone

CNN  

The US surgeon general has issued an advisory recommending that more Americans carry opioid overdose antidote naloxone. Naloxone can quickly reverse the effects of opioid overdose, slowing or stopping breathing. The drug is used by police officers, first responders, and emergency medical technicians to reverse opioid overdoses. The surgeon general emphasized that 'knowing how to use naloxone and keeping it …

Pill Limits Are Not a Smart Way to Fight the Opioid Crisis
6 years, 11 months ago

Pill Limits Are Not a Smart Way to Fight the Opioid Crisis

Slate  

Last week, President Trump traveled to Manchester, New Hampshire—a designated ground zero of the opioid epidemic—and announced a number of national initiatives to combat the crisis. Estimates for new onset addiction resulting from opioids prescribed to manage chronic pain run the gamut, but the CDC guideline on prescribing opioids cites a range of 0.7 percent at low dose to 6.1 …

Doctors In Maine Say Halt In OxyContin Marketing Comes '20 Years Late'
7 years, 1 month ago

Doctors In Maine Say Halt In OxyContin Marketing Comes '20 Years Late'

NPR  

Doctors In Maine Say Halt In OxyContin Marketing Comes '20 Years Late' Enlarge this image toggle caption George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images The maker of OxyContin, one of the most prescribed and aggressively marketed opioid painkillers, will no longer tout the drug or any other opioids to doctors. The announcement, made Saturday, came as drugmaker …

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Al Franken call for action on opioid overdose reversal drug
7 years, 4 months ago

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Al Franken call for action on opioid overdose reversal drug

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON As President Donald Trump announced that the opioid epidemic is a public health emergency, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken called on Trump to allow the government to negotiate lower prices for an opioid overdose reversal drug. In a letter signed by other Democratic senators, they said that access to the drug naloxone is particularly important given the size …

Op-Ed: The opioid crackdown is making life untenable for chronic pain patients like me
7 years, 5 months ago

Op-Ed: The opioid crackdown is making life untenable for chronic pain patients like me

LA Times  

President Trump recently said that he intends to declare the opioid crisis a national emergency. The rate of misuse is much lower among patients who are prescribed opioid medication for chronic pain — 21% to 29%, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. An even smaller percentage of chronic pain patients develop a disorder — between 8% and 12%. …

Opioid prescriptions from ER doctors are more often safe
7 years, 5 months ago

Opioid prescriptions from ER doctors are more often safe

Daily Mail  

Opioid prescriptions that are given to ER patients are less likely to result in potentially-fatal drug addictions, a new study has found. A new report from the American College of Emergency Physicians has found that ER doctors are more likely to prescribe opioids safely and in line with guidelines set forth by the CDC The number of prescriptions written for …

A guide to prescribing painkillers ethically
7 years, 6 months ago

A guide to prescribing painkillers ethically

Daily Mail  

America's opioid crisis is getting worse. As a bioethicist working on the ethical and policy issues regarding prescription opioids, I am grateful to the National Academy of Medicine for inviting me to serve on this publication's authorship team, and for taking seriously the ethical component of the prescription opioid crisis. A National Academy of Medicine researcher has written a guide …

Groups seek ban on high-dose opioids citing overdose danger
7 years, 6 months ago

Groups seek ban on high-dose opioids citing overdose danger

Associated Press  

CHICAGO — Safety advocates and state health officials are formally calling on the Food and Drug Administration to ban high-dose opioid painkillers to prevent accidental overdose deaths among patients and people who abuse drugs. A petition filed Thursday asks the FDA to ban opioid pills that, when taken as directed, would add up to a daily dose of more than …

Intent On Reversing Its Opioid Epidemic, A State Limits Prescriptions
7 years, 7 months ago

Intent On Reversing Its Opioid Epidemic, A State Limits Prescriptions

NPR  

Intent On Reversing Its Opioid Epidemic, A State Limits Prescriptions Enlarge this image toggle caption Fanatic Studio/Getty Images Fanatic Studio/Getty Images A year ago, Maine was one of the first states to set limits on opioid prescriptions. Medd had already started to taper high doses among patients like Hodgdon before Maine put a cap on new prescriptions for opioids last …

Hospitals Could Do More For Survivors Of Opioid Overdoses, Study Suggests
7 years, 7 months ago

Hospitals Could Do More For Survivors Of Opioid Overdoses, Study Suggests

NPR  

Hospitals Could Do More For Survivors Of Opioid Overdoses, Study Suggests Enlarge this image toggle caption FangXiaNuo/Getty Images FangXiaNuo/Getty Images To get a sense of how severe the opioid crisis is in the U.S., you can look at the number of fatal overdoses — more than 33,000 in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sponsor Message …

Don’t blame the surgeons: Long-term opioid use rarely starts with surgery, study finds
7 years, 7 months ago

Don’t blame the surgeons: Long-term opioid use rarely starts with surgery, study finds

LA Times  

Don’t blame the nation’s surgeons for an opiate-abuse crisis that now claims 142 lives daily in the United States. New research suggests that patients leaving the hospital after surgeries or inpatient procedures are rarely the ones whose long-term opioid use started with a doctor’s prescription. Instead, the patients who most frequently go on to use opioid medications for six months …

Doctors increasingly face charges for patient overdoses
7 years, 7 months ago

Doctors increasingly face charges for patient overdoses

CNN  

Story highlights Between 2011 and 2016, the number of doctors punished by the DEA jumped more than five times One challenge is whether and how to wean some patients off long-term opioids for chronic pain CNN — Doctors are increasingly being held accountable – some even facing murder charges – when their patients overdose on opioid painkillers they prescribed. “The …

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