Published in Italian Journal of Pediatrics
Opioid-related mortality in adolescents is spreading in the US, with prescription opioids playing a crucial role in the development of addiction. We traced back to the process leading to the so called “opioid overflow”, trying to identify any modifiable attitude. Since the late 1990s, pain was labelled as the “fifth vital sign” and its proper manag...
Published in Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research
BackgroundRecent work has shed light on the potential benefits of cannabinoids for multimodal pain control following orthopedic procedures. The objective of this review was to summarize the available evidence of analgesic and opioid-sparing effects cannabinoids have in orthopedic surgery and identify adverse events associated with their use.Methods...
Published in Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
BackgroundOpioid use disorder (OUD), a chronic disease, is a major public health problem. Despite availability of effective treatment, too few people receive it and treatment retention is low. Understanding barriers and facilitators of treatment access and retention is needed to improve outcomes for people with OUD.ObjectivesTo assess 3-month outco...
Published in BMC Psychiatry
BackgroundThe relationship between economic conditions and substance abuse is unclear, with few studies reporting drug-specific substance abuse. The present study examined the association between economic conditions and drug-specific substance abuse admissions.MethodsState annual administrative data were drawn from the 1993–2016 Treatment Episode D...
Published in Resuscitation
We have recently demonstrated that a significant proportion of fatal out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) are precipitated by occult overdose, which could benefit from antidote therapy administered adjunctively with other cardiac resuscitation measures. We sought to develop simple decision instruments that EMS providers and other first responder...
Published in BMC Psychiatry
BackgroundLike other complex diseases including drug addiction, genetic factors can interfere with the disease. In this study, three opioid genes (OPRM1, OPRD1, and OPRK1) were examined for an association with drug addiction among Jordanian males.MethodsThe study involved 498 addicts, in addition to 496 healthy controls and all from Arab descent.Re...
Published in Social science & medicine (1982)
Stigma is a known barrier to treating substance use disorders and dramatically diminishes the quality of life of people who use drugs (PWUD) nonmedically. Stigma against PWUD may be especially pronounced in rural areas due to their decreased anonymity and residents' limited access, or resistance, to "neutralizing" information on factors associated ...
Published in Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.)
There are significant medical risks of long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) for chronic pain. Consequently, there is a need to identify effective interventions for the reduction of high-dose full-agonist opioid medication use. The current study details a retrospective review of 240 patients with chronic pain and LTOT presenting for treatment at a specia...
Published in Harm Reduction Journal
BackgroundThe United States and Canada are amidst an opioid overdose crisis, with the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) among the hardest hit. In response, drug checking services (DCS) have been introduced in this setting as a novel pilot harm reduction intervention though little is known about usage rates. Therefore, we sought to identify...
Published in Journal of health economics
Drug control policy can have unintended consequences by pushing existing users to alternative, possibly more dangerous substances. Policies that target only new users may therefore be especially promising. Using commercial insurance claims data, we provide the first evidence on a set of new policies intended to reduce opioid initiation in the form ...
