In news that suggest the U.S. opioid epidemic may be easing, drug overdose deaths fell 17% between July 2023 and July 2024.
Per new data released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...
Most Americans understand how deeply the dangerous opioid fentanyl has permeated the illicit drug market.
Now, it's even infiltrated the bodies of Gulf of Mexico dolphins.
Researchers at Texas A&M University report that they've detected traces of fentanyl in th...
Deaths from fentanyl-linked drug overdoses have begun to decline in the United States, but the crisis is far from over and those numbers could easily rise again, a new government report shows.
Controversial fentanyl lollipops and similar products will no longer be made by drug makers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced.
Known as TIRF medications, these products contain fentanyl and are used to manage breakthrough pain in cancer patients who ha...
Despite stereotypical images of addicts injecting heroin and then dying, new government research finds that smoking drugs such as fentanyl is now the leading cause of fatal overdoses.
Doctors report they are seeing what they think is a new syndrome in babies who are exposed to fentanyl while in the womb.
All of the infants have cleft palates and unusually small heads, and all were born to mothers who said they'd used fentanyl and other drugs while pre...
TUESDAY, NOV. 14, 2023 (Healthday News) -- Over 1 in 6 Americans, adults and teens alike, suffered a substance use disorder in 2022, new government data released Monday shows.
Americans who haven't been to college appear to be a risk group for drug overdose deaths.
Deaths due to overdose increased among less-educated Americans, with the rate nearly doubling in a three-year period for those without a high school diploma, according to a new stud...
The "fourth wave" of the U.S. overdose crisis involves the use of illicit fentanyl mixed with stimulants such as cocaine or methamphetamine, and it's killing people in droves.
The proportion of U.S. overdose deaths involving both fentanyl and stimulants jumped by mo...
In recent years, the opioid epidemic has been worsened by the advent of street fentanyl, an illicit version of a powerful prescription painkiller.
But experts now warn that the threat posed by fentanyl may ultimately pale in comparison to the emergence of an even more da...
Narcan, a lifesaving medication that reverses opioid overdose, will be available on U.S. drugstore shelves and online starting next week.
People who want to carry Narcan, the nasal spray version of naloxone, will be able to find it at Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart an...
Following a four-day raid, Mexico has closed 23 pharmacies in Caribbean resorts of Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum for irregular pill sales.
A fentanyl dealer has been found guilty of second-degree murder in what authorities believe is the first-ever murder conviction for dealing the dangerous drug.
The conviction happened in Placer County, Calif., in a case involving the fatal overdose last summer of a 15-ye...
American men die of drug overdoses at a higher rate than women, but new research shows that difference can't be completely explained by factors like misuse or greater use.
A study led by scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and the...
The medication buprenorphine normalizes brain function in people addicted to opioids, but teens rarely receive it at U.S. treatment centers, a new study finds.
Only one in four adolescent residential treatment centers in the United States uses the medication to treat opi...
Many Americans who inject illicit drugs are unknowingly getting fentanyl mixed in with their heroin, which can increase their risk for overdose and perhaps their tolerance for the drug.
About 80% of injection drug users in New York City test p...
When people receive methadone treatment for opioid use disorder, their use of the dangerous drugs heroin and fentanyl significantly declines, a new study shows.
But decreases in cocaine or methamphetamine use were not seen in a year of treatment, researchers report.
...The synthetic opioid fentanyl is killing increasing numbers of U.S. kids, emulating the chilling trends seen among adults, a new study finds.
Pediatric deaths from fentanyl increased more than 30-fold between 2013 and 2021, according to study author
U.S. officials are intensifying efforts to crack down on illicit use of the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine, which can cause painful and deadly side effects in humans.
The drug, when mixed with the opioid fentanyl, has been designated an "emerging threat,"the Office of ...
Traveling in Mexico? Use caution when buying medications there, cautions the U.S. State Department.
The warning was issued in response to concerns about counter...
Opioids pose the greatest poison risk to children in the United States, accounting for more than half of poisoning deaths in infants and toddlers, a new study reports.
About 52% of poisoning deaths of children aged 5 and younger in 2018 involved the ingestion of an opioi...
Deaths from methamphetamine among Americans increased 50-fold between 1999 and 2021, a chilling new study reports.
Most of these deaths also involved heroin or fentanyl, according to researchers.
"The staggering increase in methamphetamine-related deaths in the Uni...
Researchers have uncovered groundbreaking evidence that pharmacies in tourist areas of Northern Mexico are selling counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamines.
The pills, mainly sold to U.S. tourists without a prescription, were passed off as contr...
Deaths of teens from drug overdoses soared starting in late 2019, and though they appear to be on the decline, they remain much higher than in 2019, U.S. health officials report.
Most of these deaths are due to illegally made fentanyl mixed with other drugs, said study a...
Researchers report they have created a vaccine to fight fentanyl addiction, in a potential breakthrough in the opioid epidemic.
The shot would block the ability of fentanyl to enter the brain and cause the "high"that users crave. It could be used to prevent relapses in p...
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is warning the public that colorfully dyed fentanyl -- dubbed "rainbow fentanyl" -- is readily available across the United States.
"Rainbow ...
Fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that's driving a surge in drug overdose deaths, kills by stopping breathing even before someone loses consciousness, a new study reveals.
To come to that conclusion, res...
Methamphetamine is driving an epidemic of drug overdoses in rural America, a new study concludes.
Researchers attribute the surge to meth laced with fentanyl or combined with an opioid tha...
Experts predict opioid overdoses will climb in both rural and urban areas because of the l...
Drug overdose deaths among America's teens have skyrocketed during the pandemic, and not because drug use is more common, researchers report.
In 2020, overdose deaths among adolescents nearly doubled, compared with 10 years before the pandemic. They rose another 20% in t...
Dovetailing with a surge in overdose deaths, the United States has seen a sharp rise in seizures of illicit fentanyl, according to a new report.
Law enforceme...
Potent and poisonous, the synthetic opioid known as fentanyl has infiltrated nearly every corner of the U.S. illegal street drug market, experts warn.
In the process, it's killing addicts and recreati...
No magic bullet exists for ending the U.S. opioid crisis, but there's hopeful news for one high-risk population: Providing addiction medication in jails reduces the odds of addicts being re-arrested after their release, new research shows.
"Studies like this provide much...
Synthetic forms of the potentially lethal opioid fentanyl are flooding the illicit drug market, leaving a soaring number of fatal overdoses in their wake, a new U.S. report finds.
The latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that between...
New government data confirms what many have suspected: The pandemic has prompted a record number of drug overdose deaths, with more than 100,000 Americans succumbing to addiction as COVID-19 raged across the country.
That figure is almost 30% higher than the previous yea...
The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up the U.S. opioid crisis in ways bad and good, increasing the risk of use and overdose but also spurring innovative approaches to treatment.
The pandemic has definitely been linked to an increase in opioid use and overdose deaths, Tufts ...
People buying pills that look like prescription opioid painkillers or stimulants who are not buying them from a licensed pharmacy may be buying a lethal drug, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration warned this week.
This was the first public safety alert the DEA has is...
Overdose deaths linked to illicit "designer" benzodiazepines have surged in the United States, as underground labs crank out new synthetic variations on prescription tranquilizers like Valium, Xanax and Ativan.
Overdose deaths involving illicit benzos increased more than...