Alison Knopf Overdoses—not those involving prescription opioids, but of heroin and illicit fentanyl, often combined with benzodiazepines—continue to go up. But opioid prescribing continues to go down. Pain patients are untreated and suffering. Pharmaceutical companies are being sued and settling. Law enforcement is cracking down on providers. And many physicians, caught in the middle, have stopped prescribing because they don’t want to…
Tag: opioid
Overshadowed: The Mistreatment of People with Chronic Pain in Response to the Opioid Crisis
Cameron Morgan More than 42,000 people died of opioid overdoses in the United States in 2016—9,000 more than in 2015. That’s the largest yearly increase in recorded history. And given the unwavering incline in annual opioid-overdose deaths since 1999, even more people might have died in 2017. It is clear this crisis needs to be…
Opioid Epidemic Prompts Urgent Look at Pain Remedies
By Crime and Justice News Prompted by the opioid epidemic, federal agencies, university researchers, and drug companies, among others, are reexamining chronic pain, hoping to develop new approaches to predicting and preventing an ancient malady that afflicts 50 million adults in the U.S., the Washington Post reports. Finding answers could not be more urgent. The medical blunder of…
Questions to Ask Your Doctor When Tapering Off Opioid Medication
Questions to Ask Your Doctor When Tapering Off Opioid Medication Medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, PhD, CRNP on March 29, 2019 — Written by Stephanie Watson Opioids are a group of very strong pain-relieving medications. They can be helpful for short periods, such as recovery from surgery or an injury. But staying on them…
Opioid crisis turns into fentanyl crisis as deadly “Mexican Oxy” hits the streets
Opioid crisis turns into fentanyl crisis as deadly “Mexican Oxy” hits the streets Just one gram is enough to kill 500 people Posted: 6:55 AM, Sep 19, 2019 Updated: 10:49 PM, Sep 19, 2019 By: Pat Parris TUCSON, Ariz. — One gram of fentanyl can kill up to 500 people, according to DEA Special Agent…
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