Increase in new opioid prescriptions for U.S. adults using benzodiazepines stopped in 2010

Most patients (90.2%) were satisfied with their post-discharge pain control. More than one-quarter (28.2%) reported being prescribed too many opioids, while 8.3% reported not being prescribed enough. Remaining opioids were disposed of by only 7.5% of patients.

Allegations are likely to be that PBMs allowed a greater amount of opioids to be permitted in communities than could be supported based on the legitimate medical needs of the community.

There was a correlation for opioid use with risk for all outcomes in a dose-dependent manner: altered mental status, fall, and fracture.

Data were reviewed from 69 studies of 2,152 cannabis users (mean age, 20.6 years) and 6,575 comparison participants (mean age, 20.8 years) with minimal cannabis exposure.

Heavy use in Crohn's, heavy or moderate use in ulcerative colitis tied to increased risk of death

"Cancer survivors were prescribed a higher number of unique medications, including drugs with abuse potential, thereby increasing their risk of adverse drug events, financial toxicity, poor adherence, and drug-drug interactions," the authors write.

Most inserts with messages on safe disposal were for oxycodone and morphine products. None of the inserts for tramadol products and only one of 33 inserts for hydrocodone products had messages on storage or disposal.

However, only education, illicit drug use, depression, and pain interference with normal work were significant predictors of misuse.

According to the authors, this report represents the first case of recurrent fallacious lactatemia secondary to EG poisoning in the setting of drug-seeking behavior.

A recent report from the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations detailed how subcommittee members found it 'easy' to find fentanyl, pay for it and have it shipped to anywhere in the U.S.

In a statement released today, Surgeon General, Jerome M. Adams, MD, MPH, said, "It is time to make sure more people have access to this lifesaving medication, because 77 percent of opioid overdose deaths occur outside of a medical setting and more than half occur at home."

A total of 48% of respondents felt that prescription pain medication is more effective than marijuana compared to 14% who considered marijuana to be more effective. Thirty-eight percent considered both to have the same effectiveness.

The researchers found that there was a 5.88% lower rate of opioid prescribing seen in association with state implementation of medical marijuana laws.

The researchers found that 22.3% of patients had documented opioid use for more than 6 months before surgery, and 87.4% of these had continued long-term use postoperatively.

From 2005 to 2017, the subset of marijuana searches on Google indicative of shopping increased 199%: During June 2017 there were 1.4 to 2.4 million marijuana shopping searches.

In order to protect their license, a pharmacist should consider asking for the diagnosis from the doctor's office, and documenting it for chronic opioid prescriptions, as well as asking the patient for their diagnosis and documenting it.

The 7 opioids included for analysis were oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, tapentadol, and tramadol.

If approved, Lucemyra will be the first non-opioid medication indicated to mitigate opioid withdrawal symptoms.

Results showed that 65% of those in the intervention group underestimated their opioid prescribing.

Zohydro ER is also available in 10mg, 15mg, 30mg, 40mg, and 50mg dosage strengths.

Monnat found that over the study period the average county-level age-adjusted drug-related mortality rate was 16.6 deaths per 100,000 population. However, there were substantial geographic disparities in rates.

More emphasis should be placed on self-management, physical and psychological therapies for treating low back pain, rather than pharmacological or surgical treatments.

Teens with pre-existing mental health conditions, tx more likely to transition to long-term opioid use

The researchers identified 168 prescriptions associated with HNCA and 571 with LCCA diagnoses. Compared to patients with LCCA, patients with HNCA had significantly increased odds of being prescribed an opioid (odds ratio, 1.68).

Per quarter, this rate increased on average by 5.6%. Increases were seen in rates across demographic groups and all 5 U.S. regions; the largest increases were seen in the Southwest, Midwest, and West (about 7 to 11% per quarter).

The researchers observed no significant difference between the groups in pain-related function over 12 months (overall P=0.58); the mean 12-month Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) interference was 3.4 and 3.3 for the opioid and non-opioid groups, respectively.

The researchers found that there were 3,647 opioid-related hospitalizations in 31 hospitals, of which 42.9% required PICU care. Overall mortality was 1.6%, with annual deaths decreasing from 2.8 to 1.3% over the study period (P<0.001).

The likelihood of gabapentin overuse alone is low but increased significantly with concomitant opioid use.