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+3 +1
OxyContin goes global — “We’re only just getting started”
oxyContin is a dying business in America. With the nation in the grip of an opioid epidemic that has claimed more than 200,000 lives, the U.S. medical establishment is turning away from painkillers. Top health officials are discouraging primary care doctors from prescribing them for chronic pain, saying there is no proof they work long-term and substantial evidence they put patients at risk.
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+21 +1
Opioid overdoses, depression linked
The link between mental health disorders and substance abuse is well-documented. Nearly one in 12 adults in the U.S is depressed, and opioid-related deaths are skyrocketing. As these numbers continue to climb, some mental health professionals have started to wonder if there’s a link between the two.
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+19 +1
Newly developed fentanyl strips help alert drug users of a hidden danger
The strip detects fentanyl, the cheap synthetic opioid, mixed with street drugs – that’s been blamed for the surge of overdose deaths. It’s controversial because helping drug users test their supplies could be seen as advocating abuse.
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+26 +1
Is a recent fall in overdose deaths temporary or a sign of a corner turned?
Public health experts say they see reason to be optimistic but warned against drawing firm conclusions based on a half-year’s worth of data.
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+14 +1
A Rural Community Decided To Treat Its Opioid Problem Like A Natural Disaster
A rural county in Washington declared the opioid epidemic a life-threatening emergency. They use a multi-agency coordination group straight out of FEMA's playbook to respond to the crisis.
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+31 +1
The making of an opioid epidemic
The long read: When high doses of painkillers led to widespread addiction, it was called one of the biggest mistakes in modern medicine. But this was no accident
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+14 +1
Sackler family members face mass litigation and criminal investigations over opioids crisis
Suffolk county in Long Island, New York, has recently sued family member, and Connecticut and New York are considering criminal fraud and racketeering charges against leading family members
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+11 +1
Opioid death rate plunges 41 percent in Florida county at center of epidemic
Almost three years after Palm Beach County officials set out to combat the opioid epidemic, it looks like their efforts are paying off: The State Attorney’s Office reports there were 326 opioid deaths in 2018, down from 558 in 2017. That’s a 41 percent decline. When the crisis started in 2012, 143 deaths were attributed to these addictive prescription drugs. Then there were 189 deaths in 2014, and 307 in 2015. They hit a peak of 569 in 2016.
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+17 +1
Insurance rules hamper treatment for opioid use disorder
An effort to control costs in the insurance industry could be helping to fuel the nation's opioid epidemic, a new study says.From 2007 to 2018, Medicare part D patient access to buprenorphine fell from 89 percent in 2007 to 35 percent in 2018, despite its effectiveness in treating opioid use disorder, according to a research letter published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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+2 +1
Opioid crisis shows partnering with industry can be bad for public health
“Show me the bodies!” someone demanded at the end of my lecture a few years ago. As a scholar of public health ethics, law and policy, I had just warned an audience of professors and university administrators about the perils of partnering with, or taking money from, corporations – a common practice in public health research and policymaking.
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+20 +1
Pharmaceutical abuse sent more than 350,000 people to the ER in 2016
The misuse of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications resulted in an estimated 358,000 trips to U.S. emergency departments in 2016 — and almost half of those cases involved young people ages 15 to 34, according to a new study based on a national public health surveillance system.
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+15 +1
As nation struggles with opioid crisis, workers bring addiction to the job
A new survey found that 23 percent of respondents have used drugs or alcohol on the job.
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+4 +1
Johnson & Johnson faces multibillion opioids lawsuit that could upend big pharma
Oklahoma is holding the drug giant with the family-friendly image responsible for its addiction epidemic
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+3 +1
How judges added to the grim toll of opioids
In case after case, U.S. judges sealed evidence about the risks as the body count mounted. And as a Reuters analysis found, it’s only one of many big product-liability cases in which judges have countenanced a lethal and often unlawful secrecy.
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+12 +1
Another Way In Which Patents Contributed To The Opioid Crisis: Hospitals Ordered Not To Use Better, Less Problematic Medicines
Two years ago, we wrote about a stunning (and horrifying) study that explained how patents deeply contributed to the opioid crisis. It described the lengths that drug companies -- including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma -- went through to block any...
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+3 +1
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy protection
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP filed for bankruptcy protection in New York Sun...
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+14 +1
J&J Hit With $8 Billion Jury Award Over Antipsychotic Drug
A Philadelphia jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $8 billion in damages to a man who said his use of J&J’s antipsychotic Risperdal caused enlarged breasts.
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+12 +1
How Australia's smallest state wound up in the middle of America's biggest drug crisis
Australia's island state is known for its rich history and pristine environment — it also plays a huge part of supplying the raw materials that make the painkillers at the centre of the United States' opioid crisis.
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+16 +1
Australian scientists find world-first alternative to opioid-based pain relief
Australian scientists believe they have found the world's first alternative to opioid pain relief
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+19 +1
Opioids saved my life. Quitting them was excruciating
I was born with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which causes extreme pain. My doctor thought I'd never get off the painkillers.
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