Addiction

Non-pharmacologic approaches to pain relief are always welcome, but options are limited, and those that are available do not always provide adequate analgesia.

Increasing health care providers' level of awareness and concern regarding prescription drug abuse in their communities may help encourage voluntary reductions in prescribing and/or dispensing of controlled substances

The prescription opioid epidemic is a major problem, to say the least, and the number of overdoses has quadrupled since 1999. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released new guidelines designed to reduce prescription opioid misuse and abuse.

In the first global study of its kind, researchers put a number on the amount of people who are infected with both the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C.

New research has shown that the source of your arachnophobia may be able to target the same pain receptors as opioids.

The benefits of coffee consumption have long been questioned, but now a new group of experts have given it the thumbs up.

People who were using illicit drugs and sought treatment for Hepatitis C infection did just as well on direct-acting antivirals as non-drug users, Bronx, NY researchers report.

Looking at your bank statement after you got a little too spend-happy can be cringe-worthy, but it turns out that it can cause actual physical pain.

Agency to take measures to fight opioid abuse epidemic while protecting appropriate access to vitally important pain medications for the patients who need them.

Using Functional MRI scans researchers can "see" pain, study reports. The finding should be useful in evaluating pain-relievers.

The only doctor to ever be convicted of murder for recklessly prescribing drugs in the United States was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.

Are opioid abusers switching to heroin because prescripton painkillers are more difficult to get? Not necessarily, study finds.

One of the main concerns tied to prescription painkillers is their addictive properties. But those worries may be put to rest with the development of a new drug that provides the same relief without the side effects.

Although opioids serve as a lifeline for some patients with chronic pain, the medication’s potentially addictive properties make prescribing a slippery slope.

The public isn't buying the idea that addiction is a brain disease, researchers found in a review of the literature.

It’s prime time for runny noses, sore throats, and just overall not feeling well. But if you’re taking medicine for a pesky cough, do not take Licorice Coughing Liquid.

A drug trial in France has officially gone from bad to worse.

A phase I trial in France has gone terribly wrong as officials confirmed on Friday, January 15 that one person has been declared brain dead and five additional people are being hospitalized.

Although opioids can improve mood for a short time, their long-term effects can trigger the onset of depression.

Readmissions are a concern and a dilemma for hospitals across the nation as the federal government docks facilities when patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge. It has caused a surge in research about the causes of readmission and strategies to avoid them.

To prescribe or not to prescribe? That is the question. When it comes to patients who have overdosed on opioids, the majority get another prescription for the medication.

Refining data presented earlier this month at the American Epilepsy Society meeting, NYU Langone researchers published a report on medical marijuana and intractable epilepsy in Lancet Neurology.

A group of health professionals and researchers have received grants to study treatments for substance use disorders and hepatitis C among people incarcerated in state prisons.

While previous studies blamed ‘pill mills’ for the current opioid epidemic, a recent analysis discovered that general prescribers make up a significant part of the problem.

Injection drug users who reuse or share syringes spread hepatitis C and HIV. About half of these users live outside the cities, but there are relatively few needle exchange programs available to them, according to the CDC.

A research team led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health investigators has issued a report to help tackle the prescription opioid epidemic that kills an average of 44 people per day in the United States.

Thirty-day emergency room readmissions due to acute pain is not uncommon in children with sickle cell disease, and researchers suspect that opioid prescription practices has something to do with it.

Younger patients may get a bad rep for misusing prescription medications, but they do not make up the prominent group who get the interventions.

An easy-to-use nasal-spray version of naxolone hydrochloride (Narcan) got rapid FDA approval. It is available only by prescription, but requires no medical training to administer.

Due in part to the high prices direct-acting antivirals for hepatitis C infection, many Medicaid programs are not offering them to injection drug users, nor are some states and institutions seeking these patients out for testing to see if they have the virus. But a new study shows that even when drug-users do not give up their habit, they can be safely and effectively treated for the lethal virus.