Prescription Drug Abuse

A growing number of hospitals across the country are rewriting protocols and retraining staff in an effort to minimize opioid prescriptions, PBS NewsHour reports.

The Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association is warning its members that some people are taking pain medicine prescribed to pets, according to The Boston Globe.

The U.S. House on Wednesday approved the 21st Century Cures Act, which includes $1 billion in new funding for the prevention and treatment of opioid addiction.

A new study finds the number of young children and teens hospitalized for opioid painkiller overdoses has almost tripled in recent years.

Thirteen drug distribution companies knew or should have known that hundreds of millions of prescription narcotic pills were ending up on the black market, according to an investigation by The Washington Post.

The Drug Enforcement Administration this week announced it is requiring significant cuts in the production of prescription opioids, HealthDay reports. By 2017 the amount of prescription opioids permitted to be manufactured in the U.S. will decrease by at least 25 percent.

A new study finds the risk of prescription opioid addiction rose 37 percent among young adults between 2002 and 2014. Past-year heroin use also rose among 18- to 25-year-olds, from 2 percent to 7 percent.

A new government survey finds 35 percent of American adults were prescribed painkillers last year, The Washington Post reports.

A new government survey finds 18.9 million people ages 12 and older—7.1 percent—misused prescription drugs such as pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives last year.

The Food and Drug Administration has stepped up warnings about the dangers of combining opioid painkillers with benzodiazepine sedatives. The agency is requiring new warnings on labels for opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine, as well as for benzodiazepines such as alprazolam and diazepam.

Prescription drug monitoring databases are assisting states in battling the opioid epidemic, according to The Wall Street Journal.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has sent a letter to every doctor in the country, asking for their help in solving the opioid epidemic, CNN reports.

Appalachia, which has long been dealing with an epidemic of prescription opioid abuse, is now seeing an influx of heroin, The Courier-Journal reports.

Three U.S. senators have introduced a bill that would require doctors to use prescription drug monitoring programs before they prescribe painkillers. The Prescription Drug Monitoring Act is co-sponsored by Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Angus King of Maine.

A new study finds an increased risk of suicide attempts in teens is associated with prescription drug abuse, Reuters reports. Teens who said they used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes at the start of the study were almost three times as likely to report a suicide attempt a year later.

An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration has recommended approving a long-acting opioid painkiller that the manufacturer says could deter abuse. The company that makes the new drug, Arymo ER, says it comes in a tablet that is extremely hard, making it more difficult to break down.

Aetna, one of the nation’s largest health insurance companies, is contacting doctors who prescribe significantly more opioids than their peers, The Washington Post reports.

A new study concludes the risk of long-term opioid use can be reduced by starting patients off with a single prescription of a short-acting opioid, with no refills.

A new study finds that 54 percent of adults and 44 percent of children who were drug-tested by the clinical laboratory company Quest Diagnostics misused their prescription medications in 2015.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles will study whether social media can help reduce opioid abuse in patients with chronic pain, according to Science.

A new technology allows patients to safely dispose of unwanted or expired prescription painkillers at home. Hooshang Shanehsaz, RPh, DPH, Director of Pharmacy at Cardinal Health, who co-directed a pilot study of the drug deactivation system, says patients found it easy to use.

State drug prescription monitoring programs help prevent 10 opioid-overdose deaths daily in the United States, a new study finds. Improvements in the programs could save another two people daily, the researchers said.

Doctors and drug companies share responsibility for the opioid crisis sweeping the nation, the head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy told USA Today.

Some doctors are voicing their opposition to new state laws that limit opioid prescribing. The American Medical Association and other medical groups say doctors and patients should be able to balance the need to treat pain against the risk of addiction, Stateline reports.

Many disabled Medicare patients are still using prescription opioid painkillers despite the passage of state laws designed to control use of the drugs, HealthDay reports.