Each year, more than 40,000 Americans die from drug overdoses. That’s on par with the annual death toll from HIV/AIDS at the peak of the US epidemic, in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and far more than are killed each year from car accidents or gun violence. More than half of those overdose deaths involved opioids, a class of drugs including heroin, Vicodin, OxyContin, and fentanyl. So dire is the epidemic of opioid addiction that it […]
Using data from the National Poison Data System, a new study published in the journal Pediatrics examined the more than 188,000 reported exposures to prescription opioids among children and adolescents younger than 20 years old between 2000 and 2015. The study found that healthcare facility (HCF) admission occurred in 8.7 percent and 21.5 percent of exposures among children aged 0-5 years and teenagers, respectively, while serious outcomes were more frequent among teenagers. Highlights from the report included: […]
Rx Drug Misuse Parent Night: March 2nd, 7:00 PM at Stevenson High School, Recital Hall. The Catalyst Group at Stevenson has organized this informational evening for parents interested in learning more about what’s happening in our community in terms of prescription drug misuse and the risks associated with these trends for our teens. This event was organized as a result of Catalyst’s relationship with the Bardos family who lost their son, Sean, to a prescription […]
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing that overdose deaths caused by synthetic opioids such as fentanyl—the drug that killed Prince—rose by nearly 75 percent in 2015. On the same day, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts announced the arrest of six former employees, including a former CEO and two former vice presidents, of the Phoenix-based and NASDAQ-traded fentanyl producer Insys Therapeutics. The individuals are charged with bribing doctors and otherwise conspiring to […]
Natasha Butler had never heard of fentanyl until a doctor told her that a single pill had pushed her eldest son to the brink of death – and he wasn’t coming back. “The doctor said fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. I know morphine is really, really powerful. I’m trying to understand. All that in one pill? How did Jerome get that pill?” she asked, her […]
As the opioid epidemic has continued to expand across the U.S., multitudes of children have been hospitalized for opioid-related poisonings, according to a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics. Hospitalizations for prescription opioid-related poisonings increased a dramatic 165 percent, for children between the ages of 1 to 19, between 1997 and 2012, the researchers found. The “opioid crisis is effecting us all,” Julie Gaither, lead study author and Postdoctoral Fellow in Biostatistics at the Department […]
Millions of Americans live with acute or chronic pain. Many of them rely on prescription drugs to improve their ability to function and maintain their quality of life. While all prescription drugs have some risk of misuse, some drugs, identified by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as controlled substances, are particularly dangerous. Specifically, prescription opioids have high abuse potential and can lead to life-threatening adverse events when taken in excess or in combination with other drugs.1 Opioids […]
Protect Your Kids: 3 Steps to Safeguard Your Home Two-thirds of teens who report abuse of prescription medicine are getting them from friends, family and acquaintances. Make sure the teens in your life don’t have access to your medicine. Find out how to monitor, secure and properly dispose of unused and expired prescription and over-the-counter cough medicine in your home. Step 1: Monitor Parents are in an influential position to immediately help reduce teen access […]
Forty-four states will receive a total of $53 million in grants from the Obama Administration to fight the opioid epidemic, the Los Angeles Times reports. Administration officials are calling on legislators to approve $1.1 billion requested by President Obama to increase addiction treatment. The new state funds will include money to provide first responders with the opioid overdose antidote naloxone. Michael Botticelli, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said more help is […]
Prescription drug misuse could be slipping through the cracks at Illinois workplaces, this article warns. No study has assessed whether the state has a prescription drug problem in the workplace, and state law does not require employers to conduct drug tests. The Illinois Work Injury Resource Center tests thousands of employers throughout central Illinois for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, PCP, and opiates. Employers can upgrade the test to include six additional prescription medications. It can still […]
Copyright © 2019 | MH Magazine WordPress Theme by MH Themes