Nearly 2 million people in the United States are addicted to prescription opioids, and millions more feel the pain, including their families, friends and clinicians. How did we get here? “When we look back in 20 years I want us to say, ‘This is when the country woke up, when we as clinicians decided to step up in our role as leaders, as advocates, to create a foundation for better health.
Nearly 15 percent of opioid-naive patients hospitalized under Medicare are discharged with a new prescription for opioids, according to a study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine. Among those patients who received a prescription, 40 percent were still taking opioids 90 days after discharge. The rate of prescription varied almost twofold between hospitals, with some hospitals discharging as many as 20 percent of patients with a prescription for opioids.
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The Addiction Medicine Foundation today announced the accreditation of four additional fellowship programs to train addiction medicine physicians. The Foundation has supported the establishment of 40 addiction medicine fellowship training programs to date, based at major medical schools and hospitals across North America.
Developmental psychologist finds adolescents with severe alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems have a low regard for others, as indicated by higher rates of driving under the influence and having unprotected sex with a history of sexually transmitted disease.
A clinical trial from NYU Langone Medical Center and others finds use of long-term, extended-release naltrexone leads to decreases in opioid addiction relapse. Learn more.
