Feds Now Pushing States Toward Medical Treatment For Heroin Addicts

March 2, 2016

WASHINGTON — For the first time, the federal agency responsible for most public funding of drug addiction treatment has added language to its grant applications designed to push the treatment industry away from the abstinence model. Treatment for substance abuse disorders in the United States widely follows this model, which rests on the belief that abstaining […]

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Why Incarceration Is Not the Solution to the Opioid-Addiction Epidemic

March 2, 2016

By Aaron Fox, M.D., M.S. Finally, Democrats and Republicans have agreed that reducing prison sentences should be a priority, especially for nonviolent drug offenses. It’s common sense that people with substance-use disorders should be offered addiction treatment as an alternative to incarceration. But what if they can’t stop using drugs? They still don’t belong in […]

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Pain volatility and prescription opioid addiction treatment outcomes in patients with chronic pain.

March 2, 2016

This study examined pain trajectories and pain volatility in patients with chronic pain receiving treatment for prescription opioid addiction. We conducted secondary analyses of adults with chronic pain (n = 149) who received buprenorphine/naloxone (BUP/NLX) and counseling for 12 weeks in an outpatient, multisite clinical trial. Good treatment outcome was defined as urine-verified abstinence from […]

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Opioid Dependence Treatment in the Emergency Department

March 2, 2016

To the Editor In the article about emergency department (ED)–initiated buprenorphine/naloxone treatment for opioid dependence, Dr D’Onofrio and colleagues omitted important information and then focused on the most optimistic outcomes to infer a benefit. (Source: JAMA)

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Sleep-disordered breathing in patients with opioid use disorders in long-term maintenance on buprenorphine-naloxone: A case series.

March 2, 2016

CONCLUSION: Buprenorphine-naloxone maintenance treatment can be associated with sleep-disordered breathing. It can be difficult to differentiate the cause(s) of sleep-disordered breathing among the effects of buprenorphine-naloxone treatment itself, co-occurring conditions, such as obesity and cigarette smoking or other medications, or some combination thereof. Regardless of etiology, sleep-disordered breathing and its consequences present unique challenges to […]

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The extramedical use and diversion of opioid substitution medications and other medications in prison settings in Australia following the introduction of buprenorphine–naloxone film

March 2, 2016

ConclusionsDespite prison being a highly regulated and controlled environment, some level of diversion and sharing of psychoactive medication occurs among prisoners. The buprenorphine formulations used in OST present particular challenges with respect to supervised dosing in this setting. [White N, Ali R, Larance B, Zador D, Mattick RP, Degenhardt L. The extramedical use and diversion […]

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Two Patients Have Unusual Overdose Symptoms

March 2, 2016

Medic 453 is dispatched for an unconscious female with a suspected narcotics overdose. In approximately four minutes, the EMTs reach a small, 1.5-story home and are met outside by two police officers. The officers enter the house and declare the scene to be secure and safe to enter. The EMTs find a 40–45-year-old female unconscious […]

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Treatment outcomes in opioid dependent patients with different buprenorphine/naloxone induction dosing patterns and trajectories.

March 2, 2016

CONCLUSIONS: BUP induction dosing was guided by an objective measure of opioid withdrawal. Participants with higher baseline COWS whose BUP doses were raised more quickly were less likely to drop out in the first 7 days than those whose doses were raised slower. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: This study supports the use of an objective measure of […]

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Effects of a Higher-Bioavailability Buprenorphine/Naloxone Sublingual Tablet Versus Buprenorphine/Naloxone Film for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence During Induction and Stabilization: A Multicenter, Randomized Trial.

March 2, 2016

Authors: Gunderson EW, Hjelmström P, Sumner M, 006 Study Investigators Abstract PURPOSE: Sublingual buprenorphine and combination buprenorphine/naloxone (BNX) are effective options for the treatment of opioid dependence. A BNX sublingual tablet approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the induction and maintenance treatment of opioid-dependence in adults was developed as a higher-bioavailability formulation, […]

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Memantine improves buprenorphine/naloxone treatment for opioid dependent young adults

March 2, 2016

Opioid use disorders are considered a serious public health problem that is associated with increased morbidity and mortality (Degenhardt et al., 2014; Im et al., 2015; Larney et al., 2015; Yokell et al., 2014). While the recent rate of heroin use in the general population has remained relatively stable, with perhaps even some slight reduction […]

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