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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/08/opioid-epidemic-consequences-502619 The crackdown on opioids is having unintended consequences. The push for fewer opioid prescriptions at lower doses and for shorter periods has increased suffering for some pain patients including those near the end of life. The emphasis on opioids has also overshadowed other forms of substance abuse that require attention. With fatal overdoses soaring […]
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http://www.sj-r.com/news/20180324/chronic-pain-patients-losing-access-to-prescription-painkillers-advocates-say Before Cynthia Bly used up the last of her prescription of pain pills in January, she was able to do the dishes, cook meals and take short walks with her husband outside their rural Springfield home. Now that the 64-year-old former office worker no longer has access to hydrocodone, an opioid pain reliever, the […]
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Walmart Offers Product To Destroy Leftover Opioids, But Critics Say It’s Unnecessary https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/17/578591771/walmart-offers-product-to-destroy-leftover-opioids-but-critics-say-its-unnecessa Walmart is the latest national company joining in the fight to try to help curb America’s harrowing opioid epidemic, which now kills more people than breast cancer. On Wednesday the chain rolled out a pharmacy product it says provides a safe way […]
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Millions of Patients Face Pain and Withdrawal as Opioid Prescriptions Plummet https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-21/millions-of-patients-face-pain-and-withdrawal-as-opioid-prescriptions-plummet The suicide note Doug Hale left before killing himself. Source: Tammi Hale Six months after surgery to repair a damaged urinary tract in 1998, computer technician Doug Hale woke one morning with excruciating, burning pain. Hale’s suffering persisted for years, despite all sorts […]
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Misdiagnosing Causes and Casualties in the Opioid War http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/18/misdiagnosing-causes-and-casualties-in-t “The opioid crisis is an emergency,” declared President Donald Trump in August. “And I am saying officially right now that it is an emergency, a national emergency. We are going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of money on […]
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10 actions the government should take to address the opioid crisis, according to 2 experts https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/opioids/10-actions-the-government-should-take-to-address-the-opioid-crisis-according-to-2-experts.html Former CDC director Tom Frieden, MD, and Andrew Kolodny, co-director of opioid policy research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., shared 10 actions the federal government should take to address […]
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The Pros and Cons of a Heroin Shortage http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/13/the-former-head-of-the-cdc-wants-to-driv “Interdiction is critically important to increase the cost and reduce accessibility of opioids,” write former Centers for Disease Control chief Thomas R. Frieden and Brandeis University’s Andrew Kolodny in a new paper for the Journal of the American Medical Association. “As with tobacco and alcohol, if […]
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Patient Advocates Call on Brandeis to Fire Kolodny http://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2017/10/3/patient-advocates-call-on-brandeis-to-fire-kolodny A coalition of physicians, patient advocates and pain sufferers has written an open letter to Brandeis University asking for the dismissal of Andrew Kolodny, MD, a longtime critic of opioid prescribing who is co-director of opioid policy research at the university’s Heller School for Social Policy […]
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CDC Launches New Campaign Against Rx Opioids www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2017/9/25/cdc-launches-new-campaign-against-rx-opioids The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched a new marketing campaign to combat the abuse of prescription opioids – a campaign that completely ignores the increasing role of heroin and illicit fentanyl in the nation’s overdose crisis. The Rx Awareness campaign will use videos, online […]
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‘It’s coming’: Kansas health professionals, leaders consider opioid crisis impact on state http://cjonline.com/business/local/2017-08-29/it-s-coming-kansas-health-professionals-leaders-consider-opioid-crisis The opioid crisis is poised to become a Kansas problem, and leaders across the state must consider what can be done to address it now. Sharp increases in deaths from opioid drug overdoses, including heroin, are hitting much of the country. Although […]
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