With great unmet demand for substance abuse treatment, addiction experts are looking for ways to expand treatment options. Dr. McCance-Katz, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco and former president of the AAAP, discusses the need to increase the number of patients treated with Suboxone and ways to increase use of the drug as treatment.
Researchers are studying whether the opioid antagonist naltrexone can help parolees recently released from prison who have a history of opiate addiction and relapse. Initial data indicates these parolees are less likely to be reincarcerated and to relapse.
Vermont officials say prescription drug abuse in the state is becoming a crisis. They are quickly trying to find ways to address the growing problem.
Abuse of Suboxone, a drug used to treat addiction, is a growing concern among Vermont corrections officials.
A monthly injection to treat opioid dependence, approved in October 2010 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has gotten off to a slow start but is proving useful in helping certain patients, say doctors familiar with the drug, extended-release naltrexone (Vivitrol).
A study of drug overdose deaths in Florida between 2003 and 2009 has found that prescription medications were involved in 76 percent of cases. During that same period, 34 percent of overdose deaths involved illegal drugs.
As headlines about opioids focus on misuse of the drugs, physicians who treat patients with chronic pain are grappling with how to deal with opioid dependence.
Prison officials throughout the country are finding that Suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid addiction, is being smuggled in through ingenious means, including greeting cards, children’s artwork and under stamps.
Methadone, long used to treat heroin addiction, is now becoming a popular tool in the fight against prescription drug abuse in Florida. A state review last year concluded that more methadone clinics and satellite offices will be needed to deal with the growing number of patients addicted to prescription drugs.
An Oklahoma doctor who treats patients with opiate addiction by prescribing buprenorphine says federal restrictions on the number of prescriptions he can write for the drug are hurting patients.
As the problem of prescription drug abuse grows, an increasing number of babies are being born dependent on painkillers, The New York Times reports.
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