Opioid poisonings rise sharply among toddlers and teenagers
Donna De La Cruz, The New York Times
The number of children being hospitalized because of prescription opioid poisoning has risen sharply since 1997, especially among toddlers and older teenagers, researchers from the Yale School of Medicine reported. The study, published October 31, 2016, in JAMA Pediatrics, analyzed data from the Kids’ Impatient Database, a national database of pediatric hospitalizations. Looking at data gathered every three years from 1997 through 2012, they identified 13,052 instances in which children and teenagers ages 1 to 19 had been hospitalized for prescription opioid poisonings; 176 of them had died.
Federal panel calls for stricter enforcement of mental health care parity law
Jenny Gold, Kaiser Health News on NPR
Acknowledging that "there is more work to be done" to ensure that patients with mental illness and addiction don't face discrimination in their health care, a presidential task force made a series of recommendations October 28, 2016, including $9.3 million in funding to improve enforcement of the federal parity law. The long-awaited report is the product of a task force President Obama announced in March during a speech about the opioid epidemic.
‘Warm Handoff’ program aims to get overdose survivors directly into treatment
Celia Viamont, Join Together
A new program in Pennsylvania called "warm handoff" directly transfers overdose survivors from the hospital emergency department to a drug treatment provider. The program, developed by the state’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, is designed to avoid merely giving survivors a phone number to call or setting up a subsequent appointment a day or two later.
Legal opioid ‘pink’ leaving lethal trail
Max Blau, CNN
The police first suspected Brennan McGeachy had died from heroin. However, it turned out to be a drug they'd never seen before - a synthetic opioid called U-47700 - known to some as "pink" or "pinky." While nearly eight times stronger than morphine, it's still legal in most states. While 80 deaths nationwide have been linked to the synthetic opioid, only four states have banned U-47700 – Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Wyoming.
