Search

Heroin laced with carfentanil has been linked to a growing number of overdoses and deaths in multiple states since July 2016, leading the Drug Enforcement Administration, Washington, D.C., to issue [...]

Thousands of children are hospitalized annually for prescription opioid poisonings and, in recent years, hospitalization rates have nearly doubled among children of all ages, according to a study at Yale [...]

THE FIRST BAD CHOICE A friend offers you a prescription painkiller. It contains opioids, which flood your brain with dopamine (the same happy brain chemical that's released when you eat [...]

Opioid painkillers are a leading cause of death by overdose, killing more Americans than heroin. The most commonly abused pain relievers are oxycodone, oxycontin, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and oxymorphone--each creates a [...]

Painkillers in the opium family may actually make pain last longer. Morphine treatment after a nerve injury doubled the duration of pain in rats, scientists report in the June 14 [...]

With Massachusetts facing a growing epidemic of opioid addiction, the state's Catholic bishops urged in a statement released on March 2 that action be taken to quell the epidemic. 'The [...]

As the percentage of molder individuals in the U.S. population grows dramatically in the coming decades, the problem of how to address the chronic pain that is so common in [...]

The American Pain Foundation says opioid painkillers are effective in treating pain, are not that addictive, are safe when used as directed, and have few side effects, most of which [...]

A 52-YEAR-OLD WOMAN had been going to the same physician for 17 years. While she was under his care, she had been prescribed various narcotics, benzodiazepines, and barbiturates, and she [...]

Opioids rarely lead to addiction when prescribed appropriately to relieve pain. Long-term opioid recipients develop tolerance to adverse effects such as sedation but opioid-naive patients who are administered with this drug in the treatment of severe pain should be monitored in the first 24 to 48 hours. Opioids can be safely administered to older patients when treatment is started with a lower dose.

The ongoing efforts of drug manufacturers to control the misuse of opoid based drugs are discussed.

The serotonin syndrome is a serious condition that potentially can result in fatality. It is usually caused by increased serotonin stimulation. The most common pharmacological intervention that results in serotonin [...]

Wanted: better drug-risk supervision The Food and Drug Administration needs to do a better job supervising drug manufacturers' efforts to provide plans to mitigate risks for drugs with known or [...]

DENVER -- Elderly patients who are placed on a short-acting opioid analgesic for treatment of arthritis pain are twice as likely to experience a fracture during the subsequent year, compared [...]

Pneumovax 23's vial label has confusing lot number and expiration date, causing nurses to commit mistakes in medical records. Basal infusion rates, meanwhile are found not to be appropriate for patients who are opioid-naive. An error in one automated dispensing cabinet of nicotine and fentanyl patches is also examined.

The long-term prescription of opioids may obscure the status of inflammatory bowel disease activity, resulting in a 'vicious cycle' of overtreating symptoms and narcotics dose escalation, according to a study [...]