Researchers Find Bias in Industry-Funded Continuing Medical Education

Industry-funded continuing medical education (CME) influences physicians to prescribe more opioids, focus less on the consequences.

Study Finds Long-Term Opioid Use Increases Depression Risk

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A study published this week in the Annals of Family Medicine reveals that opioid painkillers, when used long-term, can lead to the onset of depression. The researchers found that the link was independent of the contribution of pain to depression.

The FDA’s Latest Black Box Warning: Don’t Mix Opioids, Benzos

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday mandated updated labels for nearly 400 opioids and benzodiazepines, following a review of scientific evidence and a citizen...

The Corruption of Evidence Based Medicine — Killing for Profit

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From Medium: According to many prominent physicians, so-called "evidence based medicine" is no longer useful. Much of the evidence base has been corrupted by the...

“Involuntary Hospitalization of Drug Users Is Bad Policy”

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While plans to involuntary commit drug users have “received virtual across-the-board support,” Susan Sered from TruthOut reports that “there is little to no evidence showing that coerced drug treatment is effective,” and that “having abstained from opiates for several days may set them up to overdose when they return to their former level of drug use, with a reduced tolerance for the drugs.”

Why Isn’t Big Pharma Paying for the Harm it Caused?

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From Alternet: The pharmaceutical industry has played a major role in causing the opioid crisis by downplaying the potentially addictive and fatal effects of narcotic pain...

Congress Did Something Extraordinary for Vulnerable Children

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From The Intercept: A new piece of legislation attempting to revolutionize the foster care system recently passed despite significant opposition. The Family First Prevention Services...

“Prince Died Amid Frantic Plans for Drug Addiction Treatment”

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Prince was found dead one day before he was scheduled to meet with Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a national authority on opioid addiction treatment. Within...

The Poison We Pick

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In this piece for New York Magazine, Andrew Sullivan traces the history of the use of opiates in the U.S. and explores the social, economic,...

Why Are So Many People Dying From Opioid Overdoses?

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From The Guardian: In a society where unemployment is prevalent and people feel isolated from friends, family, and community, opioid use has become a coping...

CBT and Educational Intervention Reduce Chronic Pain, Study Finds

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Research examines the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on experiences of chronic pain among low-income patients.

Seattle-caught Salmon Found to Contain Drugs

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From My Science Academy: In a recent study, up to 81 drugs and personal care products were detected in the flesh of salmon caught in Puget...

“West Virginia Allows Painkiller Addicts to Sue Prescribing Doctors”

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“CBS News went to West Virginia, a state that is attempting a drastic solution: allowing addicts to sue the doctors who got them hooked.”

When Legal Drugs Harm and Illegal Drugs Help

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From Scientific American: In a day and age when people are increasingly becoming addicted to prescription drugs, and increasingly helped by the therapeutic effects of illicit...

“Pharmaceutical Prosthesis and White Racial Rescue in the Prescription Opioid ‘Epidemic’”

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Critical psychiatry researcher, anthropologist and NYU professor Helena Hansen writes: “Opioid maintenance acts as a kind of pharmaceutical prosthesis which promises to return white ‘addicts’ to regaining their status as full human persons and middle-class consumers. Meanwhile, black and brown users are not deemed as persons to be rescued, but rather dangerous subjects to be pharmaceutically contained within the public discipline of the state.”

Are Pharmaceutical Companies to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic?

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From The Atlantic: As opioid abuse rises, some attorneys general and advocates are filing lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for misleading doctors and the public about...

“‘You Want a Description of Hell?’ OxyContin’s 12-Hour Problem”

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A new LA Times investigation finds that Purdue Pharma’s claims that OxyContin, a chemical cousin of heroin, could relieve pain for twelve hours led some...

“4 in 10 Know Someone Addicted to Prescription Pain Killer”

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A new poll, published in the Washington Post, explores the public’s connection to prescription pain killer abuse. “A surprising 56 percent of the public say...

Stop Chasing the Drug, Focus on ACEs

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From ACEs Connection: According to Dr. Daniel Sumrok, director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee, addiction is a normal response to...

“As Opioid Deaths Reach Record High, Drug Industry Resists Efforts to Rein in Prescriptions”

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“In 2014, the number of people who died from drug overdoses in the United States reached 47,055 — an all-time high, according to a disturbing report published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),” but “the effort to get physicians to curb their prescribing of these drugs may be faltering amid stiff resistance from drugmakers, industry-funded groups and, now, even other public health officials.”

Doctors From Lower-Tier Medical Schools Prescribe More Opioids

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From STAT: New research indicates that doctors who graduated from lower-tier medical schools prescribe about three times as many opioid painkillers per year as those...

Calling it “Brain Disease” Makes Addiction Harder to Treat

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From The Boston Globe: Conceptualizing addiction as a biological brain disease is often ineffective, as the biological model overlooks the important psychological and social factors that...

The Long History of Discrimination in Pain Medicine

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From The Atlantic: Throughout history, doctors have often stigmatized and discounted patients suffering from pain without visible injury. The rise of X-rays and other "objective"...

How the News Frames the Opioid Epidemic

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US news coverage has primarily framed the opioid drug abuse epidemic as a criminal justice issue rather than a public health problem, according to new research published ahead of print in the Journal of Psychiatric Services. The media’s framing of the epidemic may increase stigma against those who develop a dependency on prescription drugs and distract political attention from public-health oriented solutions, such as increased access to substance abuse recovery treatments.

Treating Addiction With an App

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From MIT Technology Review: A new app, Triggr, is using smartphone data to track the behavior of people struggling with substance use and addiction, with...