Report examines economic burden of Rx opioid overdose,
abuse and dependence
Curtis S. Florence, Chao Zhou Feijun Luo and Dr. Likang Xu,
Medical Care
Prescription opioid overdose, abuse, and dependence cost the U.S. $78.5 billion in 2013, according to a study released in the journal Medical Care. Healthcare spending and substance abuse treatment alone accounted for over a third of the cost ($29 billion). From 2007 to 2013, the number of prescription opioid overdose deaths increased by over 1,800 cases, and the number of people who abuse or are dependent on prescription pain medication increased by over 200,000 persons.
New Jersey Dental Association releases new opiate
prescribing guidelines
Partnership for Drug-Free New Jersey, PR Newswire
Dentists in New Jersey have proven they are committed to preventing the abuse of prescription pain medicine. In response to the worsening opioid abuse epidemic in New Jersey, the state's largest dental organization, the New Jersey Dental Association, released guidelines to its members on safe prescribing and dosing of opiate medications. The guidelines were released November 3, 2016, at the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey’s Do No Harm Symposium, a continuing education workshop designed to develop solutions to the opiate abuse epidemic by educating prescribers about safer prescribing, the scope of the opiate abuse epidemic in New Jersey, and the link between prescribed pain medicines and heroin abuse.
New opioids could relieve pain without dangerous side effects
Aneri Pattani, special to CNBC.com
Once hailed as saviors of pain patients everywhere, opioids—including oxycodone and fentanyl—have caused an addiction epidemic in the United States and earned the scorn of doctors, patients and lawmakers. Some scientists think it's time to give opioids a second chance, by developing a new generation of drugs with all the painkilling power of conventional opioids but without some of the dangerous side effects. Researchers are working with three compounds that appear to be the most promising when it comes to reversing the recent rise in opioid addiction and overdose death.
Tallying the toll of a Staten Island drug wave in flowers for funerals
Michael Wilson, The New York Times
They are not like other mourners. They are raw. “Hysterical crying,” said Jackie Berger, a florist. Some arrive at the other extreme, showing quiet resignation, even relief. “They knew this day was coming,” said Frank Lettera, a funeral director. They are the parents and relatives of young men and women who died on Staten Island after overdosing on heroin. The grieving families are passing through the rituals of death in numbers never seen before: a record 72 suspected overdoses so far this year. That number far surpasses the previous record of 41, in 2014.
