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A nationwide survey commissioned by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) highlights significant shortcomings in parental understanding of prescription opioids for management of their children’s’ pain. The findings document what the authors term a “conflicted relationship” in which parents...
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Newswise — Philadelphia, Jan. 16, 2019—Opioid drugs prescribed to children for pain relief after a typical pediatric orthopaedic procedure may be significantly overprescribed, according to a new study by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The patients used less than 25...
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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...
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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...
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A 2-year study conducted by a multidisciplinary team of cancer specialists and surgeons from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has concluded that opioids are seldom required for post-surgical pain management. The study followed 1,231 patients who underwent gynecologic or abdominal surgery and...
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Looking at medication options for substance use disorder, there is buprenorphine which is a full mu opioid agonist and also has an affinity to the kappa receptor which is what makes it lower liability in terms of abuse. Buprenorphine has been around for a long time. In the 1980s it was an injectable...
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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...
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A study of almost 23,000 patients in North Carolina who were hospitalized for infective endocarditis found that 11% could be linked to the patient’s history of drug abuse, and that the incidence of IE admissions has escalated in step with the state’s crisis of opioid abuse. According to the authors...
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Dr. Aljassem: In reviewing the literature with topical opioids, like many things that are kind of outside the box, a lot of it is not standardized. But what we do know is that they are effective in reducing pain and they are minimally absorbed systemically so they do have a high benefit with low...
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In a presentation at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2018, clinicians from Cleveland Clinic Akron General Hospital detailed a treatment protocol that avoids the use of opioids following colorectal surgery and that results in shorter hospital stays. Lead author Sophia Horattas, MD...