opioids

Health & Safety

FDA Boosts Warning On Danger Of Combining Opioids And Anxiety Meds

3:16pm August 31, 2016

by Joe Neel

Doctors increasingly prescribe opioid painkillers with benzodiazepines — medications used to treat anxiety and insomnia. That combination is causing a spike in overdoses and deaths, the FDA warns.

Scientists Engineer An Opioid That May Reduce Pain With Less Risk

5:20pm August 17, 2016

by Angus Chen

Opioids lock to a receptor in the brain that controls pain relief, pleasure and need. A new compound may offer relief without as much risk of addiction or overdose. But it's only been tested in mice.

Hearing Officer Jim Teal presides over a session of Early Intervention Family Drug Court in Sacramento, Calif., in March. The county program helps keep families together — and saves taxpayers $7 million annually, Sacramento County officials say.

California Court Helps Kids By Healing Parents' Addictions

6:37pm August 16, 2016

by Jenny Gold

A special court in Sacramento, Calif., aims to keep families together by getting treatment for parents who have substance abuse problems, instead of sending off their kids to foster care.

Queue Listen Now

Prescribing of oxycodone and other opioid pain pills rose sharply after 2000.

Many More People Seek Medical Help For Opioid Abuse

12:56pm August 01, 2016

by Julie Appleby

Insurance claims for medical services related to opioid dependence rose more than 3,000 percent between 2007 and 2014, a study finds, suggesting that opioid problems have gone mainstream.

Dr. Michael Frost demonstrates use of Probuphine, an implant that dispenses medication to treat opioid addiction.

Doctors Need A New Skill Set For This Opioid Abuse Treatment

12:58pm July 28, 2016

by Karen Shakerdge

Practicing surgery on a piece of pork — that's how some doctors are learning to implant a new drug that curbs opioid cravings. It's not a skill set typically used in addiction medicine.

Between 1999 and 2014, the number of deaths in the U.S. from prescribed opioids quadrupled. Meanwhile medical students were getting very little training on how to spot patients who are at risk for addiction, or how to treat it.

As Opioid Epidemic Surges, Medical Schools Try To Keep Pace

2:00pm July 27, 2016

by Natalie Jacewicz

Most medical schools offer little teaching about opioid addiction, even though there is unmet demand for treatment in many areas. Stanford University's medical school is trying to change that.

Kathy Snook, Terri Anderson and Gary Snook traveled from Montana to Dr. Forest Tennant's office in West Covina, Calif.

Montana's 'Pain Refugees' Leave State To Get Prescribed Opioids

5:24pm July 20, 2016

by Corin Cates-Carney

With rising awareness of opioid abuse, some pain patients say doctors are less likely to prescribe them. One Montana sufferer goes to great lengths to get his prescription — he flies to California.

A demonstration dose of Suboxone film, which is placed under the tongue. It is used to treat opioid addiction.

Maryland Switches Opioid Treatments, And Some Patients Cry Foul

6:18pm July 19, 2016

by Alison Kodjak

The state switched funding Suboxone strips for treatment of opioid abuse because they were being trafficked in jails. But some patients say the pill that was substituted isn't working for them.

Queue Listen Now

A woman lobbying Congress holds two versions of naloxone which can be used to reverse an opioid overdose.

Opioid Bill Reframes Addiction As A Health Problem, Not A Crime

12:33pm July 13, 2016

by Alison Kodjak

The Senate bill, an amalgam of more than a dozen proposals, will expand access to medication-assisted treatment. It also will encourage police to send drug users to treatment rather than to jail.

Like many small towns, Bridgton, Maine, had few resources for people seeking treatment for opioid abuse.

A Small Town Bands Together To Provide Opioid Addiction Treatment

6:03pm June 22, 2016

by Susan Sharon

After four or five of his patients died from opioid overdoses in one month, Craig Smith, a family doctor in Bridgton, Maine, realized he couldn't wait for someone else to offer addiction treatment.

Queue Listen Now