Getting a Pacemaker Can Raise Odds for Opioid Abuse

• Robert Preidt
• December 1, 2021
• Full Page

People who are prescribed opioid painkillers after receiving a heart pacemaker or defibrillator may be at risk for opioid abuse -- and the higher the initial dose, the greater the risk, according to a new study.

“The significance of this study is to make other electrop...

Surgery Often a Gateway to Opioid Abuse, Study Confirms

• October 11, 2021
• Full Page

Surgery is a common gateway to opioid misuse that can put patients at risk of an overdose.

That's the conclusion of a new analysis of data from nearly 14,000 adults who had surgery between 2013 and 2019 at UCLA hospitals. All were opioid-naive, meaning they had not fille...

Drug Makers Reach $26 Billion Deal on Opioid Lawsuits

• Robert Preidt and Ernie Mundell and Robin Foster
• July 22, 2021
• Full Page

A proposed $26 billion settlement on opioid-related lawsuits has been reached with four large drug companies, a group of state attorneys general announced Wednesday.

If enough states sign on to the deal with the country's three major drug distributors -- Cardinal Health,...

Opioids After Dental Work May Be Dangerous

• Robert Preidt
• May 3, 2021
• Full Page

Getting a prescription for an opioid painkiller from your dentist could put you or your family at risk for an overdose, a new study warns.

The finding is based on an analysis of data from 8.5 million Americans who had teeth pulled or 119 other types of dental work betwee...

Avoiding Pain and Addiction After Sports-Injury Surgery

• Rich Holmes
• June 24, 2020
• Full Page

With opioid addiction soaring in the United States, it should come as good news that an opioid painkiller may not be needed after a sports-injury repair.

A mix of non-addictive medicines may be safer and equally successful in managing pain after shoulder or knee surg...

1 in 10 Americans Uses a Prescription Painkiller: CDC

• Steven Reinberg
• June 24, 2020
• Full Page

Americans continue to look to the medicine cabinet for pain relief, with 1 in 10 using some type of prescription painkiller, a new U.S. government report says.

But use of prescription opioid painkillers leveled off from 2015 to 2018, while prescriptions for nonopioi...

1 in 4 Opioid ODs Involves Kids and Teens

• Alan Mozes
• February 18, 2020
• Full Page

More than a quarter of all opioid overdoses in the United States involve teenagers, and a full fifth of those cases were likely suicide attempts, new research shows.

The findings follow an in-depth analysis of nearly 754,000 American opioid poisoning cases that occur...

Obamacare May Have Prevented Many Opioid-Related Deaths

• Amy Norton
• January 10, 2020
• Full Page

The Medicaid expansion brought in by Obamacare may have prevented thousands of deaths from opioid overdoses, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that in U.S. states that expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, fatal opioid overdoses dipped...

Gabapentin, Opioids a Deadly Duo: FDA

• Robert Preidt
• December 19, 2019
• Full Page

New warnings about the risk of dangerous breathing difficulties when gabapentinoids are used with opioids or by certain patients must now appear on product labels, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday.

Serious breathing problems that can lead to d...

Opioid Overdose Deaths Quadruple, Centered in 8 States

• Robert Preidt
• February 22, 2019
• Full Page

U.S. opioid overdose deaths have quadrupled in the last two decades, and the highest rates are now seen in eight Eastern states, a new study shows.

Those states are: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire and Ohio.

The...

Making OxyContin 'Tamper Proof' Helped Spread Hepatitis C

• Steven Reinberg
• February 4, 2019
• Full Page

An effort to make the opioid painkiller OxyContin harder to abuse drove addicted patients to heroin and caused a dramatic increase in hepatitis C, a new study suggests.

In a classic case of unintended consequences, Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma reformulated its po...