http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (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 Drivers who have taken even a small dose of opioid painkillers have an increased risk of being injured in a car accident, a new study has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-small-doses-opioids-road.html Medications Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:30:12 EST news277493342 (HealthDay)—Prescription painkillers are second only to marijuana when it comes to drug abuse, a new government report claims. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-prescription-painkillers-trail-marijuana-abuse.html Medications Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:20:01 EST news277044770 (AP)—Five more people have been diagnosed with the same strain of hepatitis C a former traveling hospital worker is accused of spreading through tainted needles. The total is now 44 in four states. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-hep-cases-linked-nh-hospital.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:58:10 EST news275331484 (AP)—U.S. government health experts overwhelmingly voted against a stronger version of hydrocodone on Friday, questioning the need for a new form of one of most widely abused prescription painkillers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-panel-opposes-pure-hydrocodone-painkiller.html Medications Sun, 09 Dec 2012 04:00:01 EST news274244638 Today's teens and young people are abusing prescription painkillers more than any other age group or any other youth in history.  Availability of these drugs from their parents' medicine cabinets may be to blame, according to new research in the Journal of Adolescent Health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-teens-increasingly-abuse-prescription-painkillers.html Medications Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:20:06 EST news269854385 Prescription painkillers are responsible for more fatal overdoses in the United States than heroin and cocaine combined. And while most states have programs to curb abuse and addiction, a new report from Brandeis University shows that many states do not fully analyze the data they collect. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-painkiller-overdoses-mount-outline-effective.html Medications Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:03:27 EST news267372199 (HealthDay)—Although most victims of sexual assault experience severe pain after their attack, fewer than one-third receive medication to ease their discomfort, according to a new study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-pain-sexual-assault-untreated.html Health Fri, 14 Sep 2012 15:50:01 EST news266852936 Heart attack survivors who take common painkillers after a heart attack have a higher long-term risk of dying or having a second heart attack, according to a new study published in Circulation, an American Heart Association journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-painkillers-death-heart-survivors.html Cardiology Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:00:04 EST news266501155 The U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion recently intro­duced a series of safety mea­sures designed to reduce the risk of extended-​​release and long-​​acting opioid med­ica­tions, the abuse of which led to nearly 16,000 deaths in 2008. Northeastern University news office asked drug policy expert Leo Beletsky, an assis­tant pro­fessor of law and health sci­ences at North­eastern Uni­ver­sity, to expound upon the threat posed by opioid anal­gesics, 22.9 mil­lion pre­scrip­tions of which were dis­pensed last year. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-3qs-painkillers.html Medications Fri, 03 Aug 2012 06:14:23 EST news263193256 (HealthDay) -- As part of its efforts to curb the abuse of narcotic painkillers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is requiring drug makers to educate doctors about the risks of long-acting and extended-release forms of the drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-dangers-long-acting-pain-meds-fda.html Medications Mon, 09 Jul 2012 17:44:05 EST news261074633 Genetics play a significant role in determining which patients will suffer the most from the disturbing side effects of opiates, commonly prescribed painkillers for severe to moderate pain, according to a new Stanford University School of Medicine study, which pinpoints nausea, slowed breathing and potential for addiction as heritable traits. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-opiates-side-effects-rooted-patients.html Medical research Wed, 20 Jun 2012 08:46:31 EST news259400592 A new study suggests that aspirin and other similar painkillers may help protect against skin cancer. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings indicate that skin cancer prevention may be added to the benefits of these commonly used medications. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-commonly-painkillers-skin-cancer.html Cancer Tue, 29 May 2012 03:35:27 EST news257481285 Between 2000 and 2009 in the United States, the annual rate of maternal opiate use increased nearly 5-fold, while diagnosis of the drug withdrawal syndrome among newborns, neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), increased almost 3-fold, accompanied by a substantial increase in hospital charges related to NAS, according to a study published online by JAMA. The study is being released early to coincide with its presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-spike-painkiller-addicted-babies.html Health Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:20:01 EST news255021649 (AP) -- Steve Wohlen lay on his front lawn, blue, unconscious and barely breathing, overdosing on heroin. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-drug-overdose-antidote-addicts.html Addiction Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:45:03 EST news254670270 Kidney stones are agonising, and can lead to medical complications. There are many causes and types of stone, but the number of cases diagnosed is continuing to rise. Short term treatment, as anyone who has suffered from this condition will know, can involve high strength painkillers and ultrasound to shatter the stones and allow them to pass. However, even with this course of treatment there is still a 60% risk of reoccurrence, and attempts to find preventative treatments have been hindered by the difficulties in finding a ‘model’ system; stones are likely to be as agonizing for lab animals as for humans. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-fruit-flies-kidney-stones.html Medical research Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:15:49 EST news251716541 Caffeine improves the effectiveness of over-the-counter pain relieving drugs, but only by a small margin, according to a new evidence review in The Cochrane Library. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-caffeine-small-boost-painkillers-effectiveness.html Medications Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:30:02 EST news251107741 There is better evidence for the effectiveness of drug-based approaches for relieving labour pains than non-drug approaches. These are the findings of an all-encompassing publishing in The Cochrane Library, which draws together results from a number of previous reviews on the subject. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-pain-relief-poor-evidence-non-drug.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:00:03 EST news250876288 (HealthDay) -- A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Monday will weigh the wisdom of allowing new clinical trials of a class of powerful painkillers for osteoarthritis. The drugs may have worked so well for some patients that those patients wound up needing knee replacement surgery because they overworked their already damaged joints. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-fda-panel-chance-class-painkillers.html Medications Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:40:01 EST news250778922 Opioid-dependent individuals who want to kick the habit typically begin the road to recovery with detoxification. But detox is ineffective as a stand-alone treatment, with relapse rates ranging from 65% to 80% just one month after discharge. New research published online today in the journal Addiction reveals that individuals with substance use disorders may be as much as ten times more likely to stay abstinent when they have access to drug-free recovery housing and day-treatment programs following detox. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-recovery-housing-treatment-relapse-recovering.html Addiction Tue, 28 Feb 2012 04:43:25 EST news249626579 Prescriptions for narcotic painkillers soared so much over the last decade that by 2010 enough were being dispensed to medicate every adult in the United States around the clock for a month. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-networking-fuels-painkiller-boom.html Medications Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:20:05 EST news248977195 Legal limits for twenty illegal drugs and medicines with an abuse potential have been introduced by the Norwegian government. Norway is the first country to define both impairment-based legislative limits and limits for graded sanctions for drugs other than alcohol. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health participated to provide the scientific basis for the new limits. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-norway-legal-limits-traffic-drugs.html Medications Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:05:35 EST news248353523 The number of oxycodone pills sold by Florida doctors dropped dramatically in 2011, following a series of high-profile arrests and a legislative crackdown on the storefront "pill mills" that made South Florida the hub of a nationwide black market in prescription painkillers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-sales-oxycodone-doctors-fall-florida.html Medications Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:20:01 EST news247399795 Following fatal shootings in two New York pharmacy robberies, a U.S. senator is warning that a new batch of "super painkillers" now under review could force repeats of recent violent robberies that left six people dead. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-senator-fda-danger-painkillers.html Medications Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:29:01 EST news245240928 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 A new study has shown harmful prescription patterns of powerful painkillers among a substantial number of Ontario patients who received methadone therapy to treat their opioid addiction. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-patterns-painkiller-prescriptions-methadone-patients.html Medications Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:28:57 EST news241712925 (AP) -- A South African pharmaceutical manufacturer is fighting moves toward banning a painkiller that has been removed from the shelves in the U.S. and Europe because of fears it could harm the heart. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-african-company-painkiller.html Medications Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:20:01 EST news240768476 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 Individuals addicted to prescription painkillers are more likely to succeed in treatment with the aid of the medication buprenorphine-naloxone (Suboxone), report McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School researchers in today's online edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-suboxone-effective-painkiller-addiction.html Medications Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:06:37 EST news239907981 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