New Treatment Guidance for Pregnant Mothers with Opioid Use Disorder
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released new Clinical Guidance for Treating Pregnant and Parenting Women with Opioid Use Disorder and Their Infants. SAMHSA’s Clinical Guidance comes at a time of great need for effective opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment. In 2016, over 20,000 pregnant women reported using heroin or misusing pain relievers in the past month. Newborn babies of mothers who used opioids while pregnant are at risk of neonatal abstinence syndrome–a group of physical and neurobehavioral signs of withdrawal. The guidance, which consists of 16 fact sheets on prenatal, infant, and maternal postnatal care,…
New Study Results on Opioid Use and Pain
A study of more than 100,000 surgical cases at University of Virginia (UVA) Health System found patients’ pain scores improved even as doctors gave fewer opioids. Two key factors were associated with this finding: Opioids make patients more sensitive to pain, though the reason why that occurs is unclear. So reducing the amount of opioids given to patients might by itself improve pain scores. UVA began implementing the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery program, which increased the use of non-opioid pain medications, such as lidocaine and acetaminophen, which is commonly used in over-the-counter pain medications. Click HERE for more on this…
Opiate Impact in 2015
The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the country is in fact dealing with multiple opioid epidemics right now — each with a distinct geographic footprint. Click HERE for more on this story
North Carolina Medical Board Calls Attention to Prescription Drug Overdoses
Across Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Gaston, Cleveland, Union and Anson counties, 134 people died from opioid overdoses in 2015. The North Carolina Medical Board is trying to stop addiction and prevent overdoses by analyzing doctors’ prescribing records and the steps they take to prevent and identify patient misuse of painkillers. “It is critical that we look at it because even one overdose or narcotic opioid poisoning is too many,” said Dr. Mark Romanoff (the Charlotte physician on the committee that created the new investigative program). The medical board is investigating 12 doctors who are considered high-dose prescribers and 60 physicians who had…
The Safe Opioid Prescribing Initiative
Doctors who over-prescribe OxyContin, Percocet and other narcotic painkillers known as opioids are widely seen as partly responsible for a dramatic rise in drug overdose deaths over the last two decades. Fatal overdoses kill more than 1,000 people a year in North Carolina and nearly half involve prescriptions written within 60 days of the victim’s death. Regulators seeking to curb deaths are now using a statewide database to spot potentially reckless prescribing. Click HERE for more on this story
SAMHSA Announces a $30,000 Opioid Recovery App Challenge
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is announcing a new challenge to help to spur developers to create a mobile application (app) that provides additional recovery support to patients receiving treatment for opioid misuse. The app may be used as part of a patient’s comprehensive treatment plan that includes counseling and participation in social support programs. The goal of this challenge is to increase access to resources, educational materials, information and support for people in outpatient recovery from opioid misuse. Click here for more information
Public Health Leaders Urge Far-Reaching Reforms to Curb Prescription Opioid Epidemic
A group of experts, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, issued recommendations aimed at stemming the prescription opioid epidemic, a crisis that kills an average of 44 people a day in the U.S. The report calls for changes to the way medical students and physicians are trained, prescriptions are dispensed and monitored, first responders are equipped to treat overdoses, and those with addiction are identified and treated. The report, titled “The Prescription Opioid Epidemic: An Evidence-Based Approach,” breaks its recommendations into seven categories: Prescribing Guidelines Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs)…
DEA Placement of Tramadol Into Schedule IV
Tramadol is an opioid analgesic and is most commonly abused by those addicted to narcotics, chronic pain patients, and health professionals. Tramadol was approved for marketing in the United States as a noncontrolled analgesic in 1995 under the trade name of Ultram®. Until recently, it had remained an uncontrolled substance. Starting August 18, 2014, tramadol is now a schedule IV controlled substance, and will be regulated as such moving forward. Supporters of this ruling have been concerned about the abuse potential and have referred to tramadol as a ” ‘loop hole’ drug which is addictive, abused and diverted, but which…
NC Pregnancy and Opioid Exposure Professional Education Needs
Information and guidance is being sought to develop a North Carolina educational tool kit for multi-disciplinary professionals about pregnancy and opioid exposure. You are invited to participate in an anonymous electronic survey of professionals working with women of childbearing age who may be taking opioids (ex. methadone, buprenorphine, vicodin, oxycontin, or heroin), to determine the educational needs of professionals on this topic. No personally identifiable information will be recorded. Click here to participate in this important effort and for additional information about this study