Top headlines of the week from Friday, April 18- Thursday, April 24, 2014.
Top headlines of the week from Friday, April 11- Thursday, April 17, 2014.
By now, almost everyone has heard the big announcement from CVS/pharmacy that their stores will become tobacco-free by October 1. This is a significant milestone, and yet it’s just the latest chapter of a long story explains Bob Gordon, winner of Legacy’s 2013 Community Activist Award.
No other major retailers have joined CVS in pledging to pull tobacco from store shelves, the Associated Press reports. CVS, the nation’s second largest drugstore chain, announced earlier this year it will stop selling tobacco products by October 1.
Eight U.S. senators are urging other major drug store chains to follow the example of CVS, which announced last week it will no longer sell tobacco products by October.
CVS Caremark announced Wednesday it will stop selling tobacco products by October 1, the Los Angeles Times reports. CVS, the nation’s second-largest drugstore chain, will be the first national pharmacy company to stop selling tobacco.
Primary care doctors can discover whether patients are abusing drugs or alcohol by asking a single question, a new study finds.
Only one in six American adults say their doctor or other health professional has ever asked them about their alcohol use, according to a new survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The American College of Physicians, one of the nation’s largest medical groups, has released a set of recommendations about how doctors can help reduce prescription drug abuse.
The American Medical Association’s House of Delegates voted this week to reaffirm its opposition to marijuana legalization, according to U.S. News & World Report.
A review of medical groups’ guidelines on prescribing opioids for chronic pain finds most of the organizations are in are agreement, Reuters reports.
An online training program designed to reduce prescription drug abuse shows promise in early results, HealthCanal reports.
Doctors who self-medicate with prescription drugs often do so to relieve physical or emotional pain, or to relieve stress, according to a survey of doctors in recovery.
Purdue Pharma, which makes the opioid painkiller OxyContin, has compiled a database of about 1,800 doctors it suspects may have recklessly prescribed the drug to people addicted to it, as well as to drug dealers, the Los Angeles Times reports. The company has kept most of the list private.
Doctors’ attitudes about opioids are closely related to how often they prescribe the painkillers, a new study suggests.
The American Academy of Family Physicians, in cooperation with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is offering its members online tools to help them care for patients and families struggling with addiction.
A poll of doctors finds 76 percent say they would approve of the use of medical marijuana to treat pain in an older woman with advanced breast cancer.
More than half of internal medicine residents at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston say they were not adequately trained in addiction and other substance use disorders, according to a new survey.
A new campaign launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages smokers to talk with their physician about quitting. The “Talk With Your Doctor” campaign also provides materials for physicians to help their patients give up cigarettes.
Some Minnesota physicians say they are sometimes unfairly blamed for patients’ prescription drug abuse, the Associated Press reports. At a Minnesota Medical Association forum, doctors said they feel caught between trying to help patients in pain and attempting to curb abuse.
Primary care physicians should ask their adult patients about their drinking habits, and counsel those whose alcohol use is risky, according to a new report.
Patient safety experts are urging hospitals to require physicians to have random drug and alcohol tests. The tests should also be conducted if a patient dies suddenly or is injured unexpectedly during surgery, they write in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The Medical Board of California has voted to support measures designed to fight prescription drug abuse, the Los Angeles Times reports. The board refused to transfer its investigators looking into physician misconduct in prescription drug abuse cases to the state Attorney General’s office.
CVS Pharmacy has agreed to pay $11 million, in order to settle civil charges for violating the Controlled Substances Act at pharmacies in Oklahoma, according to USA Today.
Abuse of the anesthesia drug propofol is on the rise among health care professionals who have easy access to it, a new study suggests.
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