Despite the general understanding that combining opioids and benzodiazepines can be deadly, doctors throughout the country are still prescribing the two drugs together to patients, and addicts are still abusing them simultaneously as well. In fact, the trend seems to be rising, as more people are winding up in the emergency room or worse. In […]
Research Warns of Dangerous Opioid and Benzodiazepine Combinations Read More »
One of the most common reasons to prescribe prescription painkillers is after a surgical procedure. Sometimes these surgeries can be major, and other times they can be less invasive. However, painkillers have become part of most standard recovery protocols. One major problem with this is that sometimes patients do not stop taking their painkillers, even
Study Helps Identify Patients Most Likely to Abuse Painkillers After Surgery Read More »
One of the most under-utilized ways to monitor narcotic painkillers and the people who take them are prescription monitoring programs. These tools, often run by individual states with varying levels of participation, monitor who has been given prescriptions for different kinds of drugs, why they were prescribed and when. They help track potential misuse of
Monitoring Tools Prove Effective in Cutting Opioid Prescriptions Read More »
In the constant effort to create effective and safe treatments for people addicted to opiates such as heroin and prescription painkillers, researchers may have found a new way to prevent against further abuse. While medications geared towards reducing heroin abuse have proven successful in many circumstances, a group of researchers recently uncovered a new path
New Research into Opiate Addiction Seeks Non-Opioid Medications Read More »
The opioid crisis is a serious matter in the United States, which has seen considerable coverage in the press recently. The epidemic is being approached from many different angles, including prescription drug monitoring programs for doctors and pharmacists. However, people addicted to drugs are often resourceful in finding other ways to obtain them, and according
Addicts Found Using Pets to Obtain Drugs from Veterinarians Read More »
Emergency departments and doctors’ offices are traditionally where many people get their prescription painkillers. Because of this, policy makers and healthcare officials have taken a closer look at physicians when it comes to the prescription narcotic problem in the United States. For instance, many hospitals have instituted policies where doctors do not give more than
Varying Painkiller Prescribing Practices in Hospitals Examined Read More »
The results of a new study have found that one in six US adults takes a psychiatric drug to treat the symptoms of a condition like anxiety, depression or insomnia. Researchers found that close to 17 percent of adults reported they had filled at least one prescription for an antidepressant like Celexa or Prozac, sedatives
Medications for Other Disorders Pose Possible Threat of Dependency Read More »
The results of a new study reveal that high school students are not using opioids like prescription pain medications and heroin as much as adults. The rate of opioid use and overdose deaths has reached epidemic proportions, but has continued to decline among high school students recently. Over the past five years, the rate of
The business of selling OxyContin is dying in the US, but the drug maker earned billions of dollars during its heyday. The country is currently in the throes of what has been described as an opioid epidemic that is responsible for 200,000 deaths. Many people believe that OxyContin was one of the drugs responsible for
There has been a lot of attention in the press recently about the dangers of prescription medications like oxycodone and other opioid pain medications. Doctors have been put under close scrutiny in their medical practice to limit their prescribing habits in an effort to stop the abuse of these types of medications. These efforts have
As we have previously reported, it is important for people to not only keep their current medications in a safe place, but also to properly dispose of unused prescriptions. The reasons, especially for painkillers, are plenty. While many people immediately think of teenagers getting a hold of the drugs and abusing them, it is vital
Study Tracks Accidental Prescription Drug Overdoses Among Children Read More »
The results of a study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published in JAMA Internal Medicine have revealed information about how prescription opioid medications are stored, shared and disposed of. As the problem of prescription drug addiction continues to grow, understanding how the pills reach users will be an important
Opioid Medication Study: Majority of Patients Keep their Painkillers Read More »
