Understanding the Likelihood of Continued Opioid Use Postsurgery

Although opioids play a key role in reducing pain when recovering from surgery, some patients transition to chronic users and become dependent on them. In order to find out what situations result in patients continuing to refill their opioid prescriptions after a surgery, Johns Hopkins researchers...

Reduce Opioid Addiction Risk—By Adding Cannabis?

Conclusions from a recent study on rhesus monkeys suggest that combining opioids with marijuana may be an effective approach to reducing opioid dosage levels and attendant dependency risk while maintaining overall analgesia. The study found that cognitive impairment, including impulsivity and memory...

Blocking the Negative Emotions of Pain

Working with rodent models, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis have demonstrated that receptors in the brain that trigger emotional responses to pain including lethargy and depression can be blocked. The discovery may be a step toward the realization of less addictive...

Opioid Abuse Programs and Policies—We’re Missing the Boat

A study led by researchers from Penn State College of Engineering, in collaboration with colleagues from Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Boston University Medical School, has returned alarming—and discouraging—conclusions on efforts to intervene in the crisis of opioid...

“Substantially Underapplied”: Responding to Opioid Overdose

Although medication assisted treatment offers great promise for survivors of opioid overdose, a new study led by researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reports that it is being substantially underapplied at the epicenter of the opioid crisis. The study of nonfatal opioid...

Cause and Effect: The Vicious Cycle of Substance Abuse and Pain

Researchers from Binghamton University, State University of New York have recently completed an analysis of results from over 100 studies on pain and substance use and have highlighted what they term a positive feedback loop between the two. Author Emily Zale, PhD, assistant professor of psychology...

Veterinary Opioids: A Risk Factor for Diversion and Misuse?

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Veterinary Medicine have noted a 41% increase in opioid prescriptions for small animals over the past decade, a pattern that they highlight as yet another potential contributor to human illicit opioid use...

Medical Marijuana and Chronic Pain Management—Do Not Drive

A report from the University of Michigan Addiction Center raises concern over the lack of education and guidelines on the impact of marijuana use for chronic pain on driving impairment. The study found that 56% of respondents who had used cannabis for pain management had also driven within 2 hours...

Pain, Suicide, and Overdose—Don’t Ignore the Connections

New and disheartening statistics on opioid-related suicide and unintentional overdose deaths have emerged from a review and analysis of data by researchers from the University of Michigan. Writing this month in the New England Journal of Medicine, the team concludes that rates of suicide and...

Illicit Fentanyl--Even Worse Than We Thought?

Researchers at University of California San Francisco have released a chilling analysis of the spread of illicitly produced fentanyl into the worldwide drug abuse marketplace. The study was undertaken in an effort to determine whether the increase in fentanyl-containing substances was more demand...