http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. U.S. health regulators will require generic versions of the best-selling painkiller OxyContin to include recent formulation changes designed to make the pill harder to abuse. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-abuse-fda-blocks-oxycontin.html Medications Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:47:37 EST news285353249 The rate of drug overdose from prescription opioids increased seven-fold in New York City over a 16-year period and was concentrated especially among white residents of the city, according to latest research at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The study is one of the earliest and most comprehensive analyses of how the opioid epidemic has affected an urban area. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-prescription-overdose-epidemic-nyc.html Medications Sun, 03 Feb 2013 07:38:22 EST news279099113 Low testosterone levels occur five times more often among men who take long-acting instead of short-acting opioids for chronic pain, according to a new Kaiser Permanente study published in The Clinical Journal of Pain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-men-long-acting-chronic-pain-meds.html Medications Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:21:57 EST news278871590 (HealthDay)—A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted Friday to place tougher restrictions on prescription painkillers containing hydrocodone, potentially moving medications such as Vicodin into the same class as narcotics such as Oxycontin and Percocet. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-fda-panel-votes-tougher-curbs.html Medications Sat, 26 Jan 2013 07:50:01 EST news278401640 (HealthDay)—A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel met Thursday and Friday to discuss the fate of certain painkillers that contain the opioid known as hydrocodone, concluding in a vote in favor of moving hydrocodone combination products into the more restrictive Schedule II category of controlled substances. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-fda-panel-votes-tougher-restrictions.html Medications Sat, 26 Jan 2013 06:20:01 EST news278401574 (HealthDay)—A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will meet Thursday and Friday to discuss the fate of certain painkillers that contain an opioid known as hydrocodone. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-fda-panel-tougher-restrictions-prescription.html Medications Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:20:01 EST news278262973 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 A new study by the University of Colorado Denver reveals that today's adolescents are abusing prescription pain medications like vicodin, valium and oxycontin at a rate 40 percent higher than previous generations. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-young-people-epidemic-prescription-drug.html Medications Tue, 16 Oct 2012 10:30:07 EST news269602194 A change in the formula of the frequently abused prescription painkiller OxyContin has many abusers switching to a drug that is potentially more dangerous, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-oxycontin-formula-abusers-heroin.html Medications Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:00:11 EST news261242628 (HealthDay) -- A variety of pre-, intra-, and postoperative factors contribute to increased length of stay (LOS) for patients who undergo level 1 minimally invasive (MIS) transforaminal interbody fusions (TLIF) spine surgery, according to a study published online May 8 in Spine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-predictors-length-hospital-spine-surgery.html Surgery Thu, 17 May 2012 15:00:01 EST news256481639 (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 (AP) -- The doctor passed out prescriptions for drugs like Xanax and OxyContin, Vicodin and Adderall at a rate of 25 per day for three years, with only cursory patient examinations and a minimum of questions, authorities said. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-calif-doc-prescriptions.html Other Fri, 02 Mar 2012 08:38:56 EST news249899920 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. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-powerful-painkiller-abuse-experts.html Medications Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:16:40 EST news244142182 Efforts to halt the growing abuse of prescription drugs must include addressing the availability of these drugs on the Internet and increasing physician awareness of the dangers posed by Internet pharmacies. In a commentary in the December 20 Annals of Internal Medicine, investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California (USC), and The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA Columbia) describe the probable contribution of Internet pharmacies to the problem and outline potential strategies for addressing the problem. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-commentary-awareness-internet-pharmacies-role.html Medications Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:00:03 EST news243516904 Across U.S. outpatient clinics between 1997 and 2008, opioid prescriptions for chronic abdominal pain more than doubled, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-opioid-painkillers-abdominal-pain.html Medications Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:41:23 EST news241796476 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