Not all parts of the federal government agree on how to approach the issue of prescription painkiller abuse, according to the Associated Press.
Use of narcotic painkillers and anti-anxiety medications among elderly patients is rising sharply, according to an examination of Medicare data by USA Today. The newspaper found older patients are using the medications for longer periods than in the past.
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam this week announced a plan designed to stop prescription drug abuse in the state.
A lawsuit filed by the city of Chicago against five drug companies alleges they contributed to the nation’s prescription drug abuse epidemic through deceptive marketing of their opioid painkillers.
Heroin users are much more likely to be older, whiter and suburban compared with 50 years ago, a new study concludes. They are almost evenly split between men and women, The Washington Post reports.
More than 123,000 people ended up in hospital emergency rooms in 2011 after misusing the sedative alprazolam, sold under brand names including Xanax. The findings come from a new government report.
Two California counties have sued five drug manufacturers, accusing them of causing the country’s prescription drug abuse epidemic. The suit alleges the companies waged a “campaign of deception” in order to increase painkiller sales.
Overdose deaths from prescription narcotics tripled from 2009-2010, compared with a decade earlier, according to a new government report.
Prisons in Ohio have a large population of people addicted to heroin and painkillers, an official told the state Senate Finance Committee this week.
Miami University is using an innovative approach to preventing prescription drug abuse among its students. Before prescribing medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the university student counseling service requires students to participate in a workshop about time management, and another session about taking medication safely.
The Clinton Foundation wants to decrease the cost of the opioid overdose antidote naloxone. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration approved a handheld device that delivers a single dose of naloxone.
The latest National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day was the most successful yet, resulting in 780,158 pounds of prescription pills collected across the country on April 26.
The privacy of information contained in prescription drug monitoring databases is being tightened, The Wall Street Journal reports. Privacy advocates hail the trend, while law enforcement officials say it is hampering their attempts to curb prescription drug abuse.
The U.S. Navy has announced a new campaign aimed at reducing prescription drug abuse among sailors, according to the Navy Times.
Top headlines of the week from Friday, April 18- Thursday, April 24, 2014.
Health insurers should use state prescription monitoring databases to reduce overdoses from abuse of opioids and other prescription drugs, according to a new report.
The surge in the use of heroin and prescription opioids is resulting in more deaths than violent crimes and car crashes in many communities, law enforcement officials said this week. They met in Washington, D.C. to discuss the problem and possible solutions.
A bipartisan group of senators has formed to fight prescription drug abuse, according to The Hill. The group will look for innovative solutions to opioid abuse.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state’s largest health insurer, announced it has reduced prescriptions of narcotic painkillers by about 6.6 million pills in the past 18 months.
College students who consume energy drinks are more likely than their peers who don’t use them to abuse prescription drugs, a new study concludes. The more energy drinks a student consumes, the greater their risk.
The maker of OxyContin announced promising results from a study of a tamper-resistant form of hydrocodone, The Washington Post reports. The Food and Drug Administration has been criticized for approving Zohydro ER (extended release), a pure form of hydrocodone that is not tamper-resistant.
The effectiveness of prescription drug monitoring programs, designed to reduce “doctor shopping” for opioids, has varied greatly by state, according to a new study by Columbia University researchers.
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