Opioid Addiction

The FDA has granted de novo authorization for an opioid overdose-related prevention and alert system , according to a press release from the manufacturer.

WASHINGTON — Active IV or prescription drug use did not affect attainment of sustained virologic response when treatment adherence for hepatitis C virus was already variable, according to a poster presented at The Liver Meeting.

Illicit fentanyl positivity in patient samples from substance use disorder treatment practices in Minnesota increased by 400% during the first half of 2022 compared with 2019, according to a press release from a drug testing laboratory.

Two-thirds of an estimated 108,174 overdose deaths in the United States in the 12 months ending in April 2022 can be attributed to synthetic opioids, specifically illicitly manufactured fentanyl, researchers reported in MMWR.

Mortality due to overdose reached an all-time high among adolescents aged 10 to 19 years in 2020 amid the pandemic, researchers reported in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Following the release of opioid prescription guidance from the CDC in 2016, nonopioid pain prescriptions increased every year through 2019, researchers wrote in JAMA Network Open.

In an effort to create a safer, more patient-friendly treatment system for opioid use disorder, providers and policymakers are analyzing shifting federal regulations and their potential impacts.

Rural counties in the United States had lower odds of reaching maximum potential buprenorphine treatment capacity, according to findings published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

FDA recently approved Lybalvi for the treatment of schizophrenia and for use in manic and mixed (depressive and manic) episodes of bipolar I disorder as an acute treatment, a maintenance treatment, and for use with valproate or lithium.

Biden administration officials recently discussed several initiatives within a multi-pronged, multi-agency collaboration that they said are needed to address the overdose epidemic.