http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, enough prescription painkillers were prescribed in 2010 to medicate every American adult around the clock for a month. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-prescription-drug-aimed-curbing-painkiller.html Medications Wed, 17 Apr 2013 08:56:22 EST news285407776 A new national public opinion poll commissioned by Research!America shows only 18% of respondents believe chronic pain is a major health problem, even though a majority of Americans (63%) say they know someone who experienced pain so severe that they sought prescription medicines to treat it. Chronic pain conditions affect about 100 million U.S. adults at a cost of approximately $600 billion annually in direct medical treatment costs and lost productivity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-chronic-pain-drug-addiction-major.html Medications Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:27:57 EST news284725666 Despite efforts by law enforcement and public health officials to curb prescription drug abuse, drug-related deaths in the United States have continued to rise, the latest data show. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-deaths-tied-painkillers.html Medications Sun, 31 Mar 2013 14:10:02 EST news283956562 (Medical Xpress)—Higher mortality rates among Americans younger than 50 are responsible for much of why life expectancy is lower in the United States than most of the world's most developed nations. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-links-mortality-age-life-lagging.html Health Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:58:12 EST news282329792 (HealthDay)—Opioid analgesics are involved in the majority of pharmaceutical-related overdose deaths, frequently involving drugs prescribed for mental health conditions, according to a research letter published in the Feb. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-opioids-involved-medical-overdose-deaths.html Medications Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:10:01 EST news280674055 Training bystanders to recognize and respond to drug overdoses can significantly reduce the number of fatalities, finds a study published in BMJ today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-bystanders-drug-overdoses-deaths.html Health Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:30:01 EST news278872355 Despite data on rising rates of abuse and overdoses of narcotic pain medicines across all age groups, in a new poll from the University of Michigan, most parents said they are not very concerned about misuse of these medicines by children and teens. . http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-parents-numb-misuse-narcotic-pain.html Health Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:32:00 EST news278159488 Drug overdose was the leading cause of death among homeless adults in Boston from 2003 to 2008 and accounted for one-third of deaths among those ages 25 to 44. A study by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) compared rates and causes of death among those served by BHCHP with data from a similar 1997 study and found that, while drug overdose had replaced HIV as the leading cause of death, overall mortality rates had not changed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-drug-overdose-death-homeless-adults.html Health Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:00:01 EST news277380759 (Medical Xpress)—Giving heroin users kits with the overdose antidote naloxone is a cost-effective way to prevent overdose deaths and save lives, according to a study released this week in The Annals of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-naloxone-kits-cost-effective-overdose-deaths.html Medications Wed, 02 Jan 2013 09:40:02 EST news276340968 The prescription drug methadone is linked to over 30 percent of painkiller overdose deaths, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention Tuesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-methadone-linked-percent-painkiller-overdoses.html Medications Wed, 04 Jul 2012 03:56:25 EST news260592963 (HealthDay) -- A new U.S. government analysis shows that more than 70 percent of people who first misuse prescription medications get those pills from their friends or relatives. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-misuse-prescription-pills-friends-family.html Medications Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:20:01 EST news254593884 (AP) -- Sales of the nation's two most popular prescription painkillers have exploded in new parts of the country, an Associated Press analysis shows, worrying experts who say the push to relieve patients' suffering is spawning an addiction epidemic. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-painkiller-sales-soar-fuel-addiction.html Medications Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:06:41 EST news252817592 A new editorial released this week offers clarity and structure on confusing drug and alcohol addiction terminology for prescribers, users and regulators. "Through a glass darkly: can we improve clarity about mechanism and aims of medications in drug and alcohol treatments?" is published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the official journal of the British Association for Psychopharmacology, published by SAGE. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-addiction-terminology.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:10:13 EST news247489805 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 packs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-painkillers-british.html Medications Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:58:31 EST news240166683 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 stopped. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-deaths-painkiller-overdose-triple-decade.html Medications Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:46:52 EST news239370400 (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 driving up dispensation of the painkillers in Canada. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-prescription-opioids.html Health Sat, 20 Aug 2011 05:03:16 EST news233035372 Unintentional overdose deaths in teens and adults have reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. In some 20 states in 2007 the number of unintentional drug poisoning deaths exceeded either motor vehicle crashes or suicides, two of the leading causes of injury death. Prescription opioid pain medications are driving this overdose epidemic. Opioid pain medications were also involved in about 36 percent of all poisoning suicides in the U.S. in 2007. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-narcotic-pain-relief-drug-overdose.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:25:20 EST news222967505 Illicit drug overdose deaths in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside dropped by 35 per cent after the establishment of Insite, North America's first supervised injection facility, according a new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia and the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-overdose-deaths-percent-vancouver-site.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:30:17 EST news222348610