opioid Archives - Family Medicine News

Bioelectronic implant could prevent opioid deaths

15.10.2019 Health Problems

Researchers are developing a novel, implantable device that can sense the effects of a potentially fatal level of ingested opioids and then automatically and immediately deliver a life-saving dose of naloxone. The interdisciplinary research team, led by Northwestern University and Washington University at St. Louis, recently received a grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term […]

What we don’t know about prenatal opioid exposure

28.08.2019 Kids Health

Pregnancy can be a time of anxious uncertainty, particularly if there are any risks of complications. The question always arises, from parents, grandparents, friends and others: “Will the baby be OK?” In cases where the baby has been exposed to opioids in the womb, the answer is unclear. As part of a National Institutes of Health initiative to study the […]

Genetic anti-opioid system: A protein that could make opioid use safer in the future

16.08.2019 Health Problems

A team of researchers from the Scripps Research Institute and the University of Kansas has found a protein that could one day be manipulated to make it safer for pain sufferers to use opioids. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their study of intentional mutations in nematodes and what they learned. Opioids are a class […]

Opioid alternative? Taming tetrodotoxin for precise painkilling

12.06.2019 Health Problems

Opioids remain a mainstay of treatment for chronic and surgical pain, despite their side effects and risk for addiction and overdose. While conventional local anesthetics block pain very effectively, they wear off quickly and can affect the heart and brain. Now, a study in rats offers up a possible alternative, involving an otherwise lethal pufferfish toxin. In tiny amounts, in […]

New opioid speeds up recovery without increasing pain sensitivity or risk of chronic pain

22.05.2019 Health Problems

Morphine and other opioid-based painkillers are very effective at treating pain initially, but studies have shown that the drugs can make patients more pain-sensitive, prolonging their discomfort and increasing their risks of developing chronic pain. A new type of opioid developed by researchers at Tulane University and the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System doesn’t have this side effect and […]

Trump Declares A “Health Emergency” Addressing Opioid Crisis

10.03.2019 Family Health

We all know that drug cartels and illegal operations are rampant in the underground. It’s one of the global problems most countries around the world are dealing with on a daily basis. The problem with drugs is that they come in all forms and that’s why even the first world countries remain vulnerable. One of the most controversial crackdowns against […]

Nonmedical Rx opioid use in teens linked to parental use

26.02.2019 Kids Health

(HealthDay)—Nonmedical prescription opioid (NMPO) use in adolescents is associated with parental NMPO use and with smoking and parent-adolescent conflict, according to a study published online Feb. 25 in Pediatrics. Pamela C. Griesler, Ph.D., from Columbia University in New York City, and colleagues examined the correlation between self-reported parental and adolescent lifetime NMPO use using data for 35,000 parent-child dyads with […]

Opioid gene variant in adolescents reduces reward, may increase later substance abuse risk

05.11.2018 Health Problems

Adolescents with a particular variant of an opioid receptor gene have less response in a part of prefrontal cortex that evaluates rewards, compared to those with the other version of the gene, say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC). For the study, presented Monday at Neuroscience 2018, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (abstract #7517), the investigators […]

Opioid overdose survivors face continued health challenges, higher death rate

21.06.2018 Health Problems

Survivors of opioid overdose are at great risk of dying in the year after overdose, but the deaths are not always caused by drug use, a new study reveals. In addition to succumbing to drug use, survivors were much more likely to die from respiratory diseases, viral hepatitis, and suicide. The study, which is the first to evaluate causes of […]

Conflicting guidance on opioid prescribing can jeopardize pain management for patients with cancer

01.06.2018 Health Problems

Persistent pain and recurrent episodes of pain are common for those who are living with cancer, or for those undergoing cancer treatment. When used properly, prescription opioids have long been known to help combat pain experienced by people with cancer. In the face of the worsening opioid epidemic, clinical guidelines have been published by multiple agencies to improve the way […]