Rising dispensation of prescription opioids confirmed
(Medical Xpress) -- An investigative team led by Simon Fraser University health sciences professor Benedikt Fischer has established that starkly increasing prescription of strong opioids (POs) is...
View ArticlePain relief can now be based on solid evidence
A Cochrane Review of data relating to about 45,000 patients involved in approximately 350 individual studies has provided an evaluation of the effect you can expect to get if you take commonly used...
View ArticleMan held in Britain over contamination of painkillers
British police arrested a man on Friday after anti-psychotic and epilepsy drugs were placed in packets of the painkiller Nurofen Plus, Scotland Yard said.
View ArticleDeaths from painkiller overdose triple in decade
The number of overdose deaths from powerful painkillers more than tripled over a decade, the government reported Tuesday - a trend that a U.S. health official called an epidemic, but one that can be...
View ArticleSuboxone is most effective in treating painkiller addiction
Individuals addicted to prescription painkillers are more likely to succeed in treatment with the aid of the medication buprenorphine-naloxone (Suboxone), report McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical...
View ArticleNo painkillers please, we're British
In Britain, the popular U.S. painkiller OxyContin is considered similar to morphine and used sparingly. Vicodin isn't even licensed. And at most shops, remedies like ibuprofen are sold only in 16-pill...
View ArticleS. African company fights move to ban painkiller
(AP) -- A South African pharmaceutical manufacturer is fighting moves toward banning a painkiller that has been removed from the shelves in the U.S. and Europe because of fears it could harm the heart.
View ArticleHarmful patterns of painkiller prescriptions seen among methadone patients
A new study has shown harmful prescription patterns of powerful painkillers among a substantial number of Ontario patients who received methadone therapy to treat their opioid addiction.
View ArticleNew powerful painkiller has abuse experts worried
Drug companies are working to develop a pure, more powerful version of the nation's second most-abused medicine, which has addiction experts worried that it could spur a new wave of abuse.
View ArticleSenator warns FDA on danger of newest painkillers
Following fatal shootings in two New York pharmacy robberies, a U.S. senator is warning that a new batch of "super painkillers" now under review could force repeats of recent violent robberies that...
View ArticleSales of oxycodone by doctors fall in Florida
The number of oxycodone pills sold by Florida doctors dropped dramatically in 2011, following a series of high-profile arrests and a legislative crackdown on the storefront "pill mills" that made South...
View ArticleNorway: New legal limits in traffic for drugs other than alcohol
Legal limits for twenty illegal drugs and medicines with an abuse potential have been introduced by the Norwegian government. Norway is the first country to define both impairment-based legislative...
View ArticleNetworking fuels painkiller boom
Prescriptions for narcotic painkillers soared so much over the last decade that by 2010 enough were being dispensed to medicate every adult in the United States around the clock for a month.
View ArticleRecovery housing and treatment programs reduce relapse among recovering...
Opioid-dependent individuals who want to kick the habit typically begin the road to recovery with detoxification. But detox is ineffective as a stand-alone treatment, with relapse rates ranging from...
View ArticleFDA panel to weigh second chance for new class of painkillers
(HealthDay) -- A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Monday will weigh the wisdom of allowing new clinical trials of a class of powerful painkillers for osteoarthritis. The drugs may...
View ArticlePain relief: Poor evidence for non-drug approaches in labor
There is better evidence for the effectiveness of drug-based approaches for relieving labour pains than non-drug approaches. These are the findings of an all-encompassing publishing in The Cochrane...
View ArticleCaffeine gives a small boost to painkillers' effectiveness
Caffeine improves the effectiveness of over-the-counter pain relieving drugs, but only by a small margin, according to a new evidence review in The Cochrane Library.
View ArticleFruit flies get kidney stones too
Kidney stones are agonising, and can lead to medical complications. There are many causes and types of stone, but the number of cases diagnosed is continuing to rise. Short term treatment, as anyone...
View ArticleDrug-overdose antidote is put in addicts' hands
(AP) -- Steve Wohlen lay on his front lawn, blue, unconscious and barely breathing, overdosing on heroin.
View ArticleStudy finds increase in maternal opiate use, infants born with drug...
Between 2000 and 2009 in the United States, the annual rate of maternal opiate use increased nearly 5-fold, while diagnosis of the drug withdrawal syndrome among newborns, neonatal abstinence syndrome...
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