Opioid Abuse

In Canada, the poorest residents were 3.8 times more likely to die of opioid-related causes than the country’s richest residents, a study published in Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada showed.

HHS has announced nearly $15 million in funding will be granted for rural communities to address psychostimulant misuse and related overdose deaths.

The CDC released a draft of its updated guidelines for prescribing opioids, which emphasize patient-centered decisions and would reduce some limitations on prescribing that were previously set in 2016.

Healio Neurology featured some of the major stories from the American Neurological Association Annual Meeting.

Patients with untreated opioid use disorder responded well to a high-dose of buprenorphine in the ED.

One-fifth of older patients discharged with gabapentin following a surgical procedure had the prescription refilled for more than 90 days, suggesting long-term use is common, according to an analysis of Medicare data.

Patients who use opioids for chronic noncancer pain occasionally demonstrated problematic extra-medical opioid use behaviors, but these behaviors fluctuated considerably over time, according to survey data in JAMA Network Open.

The FDA has approved a supplemental new drug application for the long-acting local analgesic Exparel for use in children aged 6 years or older “for single-dose infiltration to produce postsurgical local analgesia,” Pacira said.

The American Heart Association published a scientific statement describing the pathophysiology and treatment options for people with opioid-associated out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Access to medical and recreational cannabis dispensaries was associated with reductions in opioid-related mortality in counties where cannabis is legal in the United States, according to research published in BMJ.