We curate a digest of the latest news in our field for advocates, policymakers, community coalitions and all who work toward shaping policies and practices to effectively prevent substance use and treat addiction.
A new study finds a significant and steady increase in the number of children in the United States who are admitted to pediatric intensive care units after swallowing opioids.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says he is willing to loosen Medicaid restrictions on addiction treatment, according to The Washington Post.
The Food and Drug Administration will allow drug companies to sell medications that reduce opioid cravings, even if they do not fully stop addiction, The New York Times reports.
Deaths from overdoses of prescription sedatives known as benzodiazepines—including Xanax and Valium—are on the rise, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A new Justice Department task force will examine the role of drug manufacturers and distributors in the opioid crisis, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said this week.
Researchers at New York University are studying whether providing the opioid-addiction medicine extended-release naltrexone (Vivitrol) to individuals when they leave jail reduces their risk of relapse and overdose.
Almost 40 percent of teens who use e-cigarettes say seeing their peers use the devices led them to try vaping themselves, a new government report finds.
A new study finds people with a potentially fatal infection are more likely to be using prescription opioids than those without the infection. Studies in animals have found opioids suppress the immune system, The New York Times reports.
House Republicans will hold a series of hearings on addressing the opioid crisis, with a focus on law enforcement, public health and insurance coverage, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A new study aims to reduce hepatitis C (HCV) transmission among young adults who inject drugs. The study will equip participants with strategies to avoid situations and practices that put them at risk of contracting HCV.
The cost of the nation’s opioid crisis exceeded $1 trillion from 2001 to 2017, a new report concludes. The epidemic may cost an additional $500 billion by 2020.
The recent federal budget deal includes $6 billion in new funding to fight the opioid crisis—an amount addiction treatment experts and some lawmakers say isn’t enough, CNN reports.
Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, said it will no longer market the drug to doctors. The announcement comes in response to lawsuits that blame the company for helping to trigger the opioid crisis, CBS News reports.
Connecting people with support services such as food and housing is a key step in curbing the opioid epidemic, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said this week.
There seem to be a growing number of cases of high amounts of fluid in the lungs following administration of the opioid overdose antidote naloxone, experts said at a recent meeting of the New York Society of Addiction Medicine annual meeting.
The Food and Drug Administration is warning that the supplement known as “kratom” is an opioid and has been linked with 44 deaths, The Washington Post reports.
The increasing rate of deaths due to opioids, alcohol and suicides are part of a public health crisis described as “deaths of despair” in a new report published this week.
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