Opioid

Laws in 23 states that capped the number of days a Medicare enrollee could receive an initial opioid prescription may have had their intended effect, a recent study showed.

Patients who had their opioids tapered after receiving stable, long-term, higher-dose opioid therapy were at a significantly increased risk for overdose and mental health crisis than those who did not have reduced doses, data showed.

Analgesic opioid use was higher among individuals with psoriasis and those with concomitant psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis compared with the general population, according to findings from a cross-sectional study conducted in Denmark.

Patients with opioid use disorder who were hospitalized for serious infections experienced higher odds of clinical cure and retention in addiction care when they were treated with a bundled intervention, according to a study.

According to a recent study, physicians with higher scores on the American Board of Internal Medicine exam were less likely to prescribe opioids for back pain than physicians with lower exam scores.

State and local governments across the U.S. have reached an agreement with Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen that will provide up to $26 billion to fight the opioid epidemic, the parties involved announced.

As the standard of care has shifted away from routine opioids for back pain, physicians with higher American Board of Internal Medicine exam scores have been less likely to prescribe opioids than those with lower scores, according to data.

For patients who have undergone surgery as part of their cancer treatment, the need to manage postoperative pain often must be weighed against the need to avoid conversion to chronic opioid use.

Patients with knee osteoarthritis who use opioids showed worse baseline structural degeneration and faster progression and had greater quality of life loss compared with controls, according to data published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Individuals who used or abused opioids were significantly more likely to receive sedating medications, including benzodiazepines, than those who did not use opioids, data show.