Category: From Newswise – Substance Abuse

– A new paper in Biological Psychiatry reports that chronic cannabis users have reduced levels of an enzyme called fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH). The enzyme has been considered for treatment for cannabis dependence because it breaks down substances made in the brain that have cannabis-like effects, called endocannabinoids, rendering them inactive.

A study led by researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Pitt Department of Psychology has identified a possible link between adolescent sleep habits and early substance abuse. The study, published today in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, found that both sleep duration and sleep quality during late childhood predict alcohol and cannabis use later in adolescence.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Each day, 78 people in the U.S. die of opioid overdoses, and more than 1,000 are treated in emergency departments for opioid misuse, federal figures show. In a series of broadcast-quality, 60-second videos available for media use, Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist and pain medicine expert W. Michael Hooten, M.D., and gastroenterologist Michael Camilleri, M.D., discuss the opioid epidemic and the dangers associated with inappropriate use of prescription pain medication.

Costs of patients who develop chronic post-surgical pain could range from $2.5 million to $4.1 million a year, in one Ontario hospital alone, according to a study in Pain Management.

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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