Surgeon General writes every doctor in U.S. about opioid epidemic
Alexandra Sifferlin, TIME
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has sent a letter to 2.3 million doctors in the United States asking them to help solve the problem of opioid addiction. Murthy points out in the letter that overdose deaths from opioids have quadrupled since 1999, and prescriptions for powerful painkillers have risen to the point that there’s enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills. Murthy is asking doctors to educate themselves on the addictiveness of painkillers, citing the fact that 20 years ago, doctors were urged to be more aggressive about pain treatment. "Many of us were even taught – incorrectly – that opioids are not addictive when prescribed for legitimate pain," he writes. He is also asking physicians to screen the people they say for opioid abuse disorder and provide them with "evidence-based treatment." Click here to read Surgeon General's letter.
FDA requires new warnings on danger of combining opioids, benzodiazepines
Laurie McGinley, The Washington Post
The Food and Drug Administration, alarmed that increasing numbers of Americans are combining opioid painkillers and benzodiazepines, said Wednesday that it will require tough new warnings on the product labels that spell out the serious dangers of mixing the drugs. The agency said it will require "boxed warnings" — its strongest category — on 389 separate products and will mandate the warning on opioid-containing cough medications. The new language will list the hazards of using the medications in tandem, which include extreme sleepiness, respiratory depression, coma and even death.
Treatment providers must respond to the market
Julie Miller, Addiction Professional
The addiction-treatment industry is most certainly at a crossroads today. With favorable legislation and a growing recognition of addiction as a chronic disease, leaders now have an opportunity to shape the direction of the road ahead. And these are pivotal decisions, according to Marvin Ventrell, executive director of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP), who spoke at the National Conference on Addiction Disorders in Denver on Sunday, August 21. "Appreciate the fact that we are in a place where if we don’t use our heads, we can do this wrong," he said.
Maine has second-highest rate of babies born dependent on opioids
Peter McGuire, Portland Press Herald
Maine ranked second among 28 states in 2012 for the number of babies born with a drug withdrawal syndrome primarily caused by exposure to opioids while in the womb, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report released Friday, August 12. According to CDC statistics compiled from the 28 states that have publicly available data, the incidence rate of neonatal abstinence syndrome in Maine was 30.4 per 1,000 hospital births in 2012, almost double the rate from 2008. Vermont was the only state with a higher incidence rate in 2012, at 30.5 births per 1,000.
