An app that alerts people carrying the opioid overdose antidote naloxone to someone nearby who has overdosed is the winner of a competition created by the Food and Drug Administration.
All patients on long-term opioid treatment should be co-prescribed the opioid overdose antidote naloxone, even if they are not considered to be at high risk of an opioid overdose, according to the director of the University of New Mexico Pain Center.
The government should call on manufacturers of the opioid overdose antidote naloxone to reduce the cost of the life-saving drug, experts write in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.
A new injectable treatment for opioid addiction showed promise in a late-stage study, according to The Wall Street Journal. The study involved weekly and monthly injections of buprenorphine for the treatment of moderate to severe opioid use disorder.
A new program in Pennsylvania called “warm handoff” directly transfers overdose survivors from the hospital emergency department to a drug treatment provider. The program, developed by the state’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP), is designed to avoid merely giving survivors a phone number to call or setting up a subsequent appointment a day or two later.
The health insurance company Cigna will no longer require doctors to get preauthorization before prescribing opioid addiction medications, USA Today reports. Until now, Cigna has required doctors to submit a preauthorization form when requesting medication-assisted treatment with buprenorphine.
We lose nearly 130 people a day to drug overdoses. It is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, and the loss is felt most acutely by the families left behind. By doing a better job of helping families and their addicted children, we can most effectively reduce these deaths and the accompanying pain and suffering, explains Tom Hedrick, founding member of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.
The Food and Drug Administration will determine whether naloxone devices distributed in communities should contain a standard dose of the opioid overdose antidote, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Attorneys general from 35 states and the District of Columbia are suing a British drug company, alleging it tried to keep less expensive generic versions of the opioid addiction treatment Suboxone off the market.
Public health officials are urging doctors to consider prescribing medications to treat alcohol addiction, NPR reports. The drugs can be used alongside or in place of peer-support programs.
The price of naloxone is increasing at a time when the need for the opioid overdose antidote is growing, CNBC reports.
Addiction doctors say insurance barriers to opioid addiction treatment are putting people’s lives at risk, USA Today reports.
The Food and Drug Administration this week launched the 2016 Naloxone App Competition to look for innovative technologies to fight the opioid epidemic.
Many doctors who are allowed to prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid addiction are treating many fewer patients than they could be, a new study finds.
Most patients taking opioid painkillers are willing to fill a prescription for the opioid overdose antidote naloxone, a new small study suggests. Prescribing naloxone to patients taking opioid painkillers is increasingly recommended by medical guidelines, HealthDay reports.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that pediatricians consider offering medication-assisted treatment, such as buprenorphine, for teen and young adult patients with severe opioid use disorders, USA Today reports.
Many insurance companies require patients who have been prescribed the opioid addiction treatment Suboxone to get prior authorization, NPR reports. This requirement can take days or weeks, leaving patients vulnerable to relapse, one expert says.
Top headlines of the week from Friday, July 22- Thursday, July 28, 2016.
Critics of the opioid overdose antidote naloxone say the treatment encourages repeated drug use, according to The New York Times. Many people overdose more than once, sometimes many times, and naloxone brings them back each time.
A new study finds few family practice physicians are prescribing the opioid addiction treatment Suboxone for their Medicare patients.
Top headlines of the week from Friday, July 15- Thursday, July 21, 2016.
A new study finds people addicted to opioids who are treated with the newly approved implanted form of buprenorphine are more likely to maintain abstinence after six months, compared with those taking the pill form of the treatment.
Doctors who in the past were only allowed to treat 100 patients at a time with the opioid addiction medication buprenorphine will now be able to treat up to 275 patients, Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell announced.
Doctors say they are finding it challenging to add the newly approved addiction treatment medicine Probuphine to their practice, WBEZ reports. They say they have to learn how to implant the drug in the upper arm of patients. They must also deal with new requirements.
Routinely prescribing naloxone to certain patients who take opioid medications might reduce the number of overdose deaths, a new study suggests.
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