Medications

How Purdue Pharma helped spark the opioid epidemic

What do conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, singer Courtney Love and deceased actor Heath Ledger all have in common? The answer, according to published reports, is that all battled addiction to OxyContin, an opioid ...

Medications

Legally high? Teenagers and prescription drug abuse

Legal drugs such as OxyContin now kill more people than heroin and cocaine combined. While awareness of the dangers of illegal drugs has increased, many teens are still ignorant of the significant physical danger posed by ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Harder-to-abuse OxyContin doesn't stop illicit use

A reformulation of OxyContin that makes it harder to abuse has curtailed the drug's illicit use. But some 25 percent of drug abusers entering rehab said they still abused the prescription painkiller despite package labeling ...

Obstetrics & gynaecology

Some painkillers tied to certain birth defects in study

(HealthDay)—Women taking prescription painkillers such as Oxycontin, Vicodin and Percocet early in pregnancy are twice as likely to give birth to babies with devastating neural tube defects such as spina bifida, a new study ...

Medications

FDA orders starker warnings on opioid painkillers

The Food and Drug Administration is requiring stronger warning labels on prescription painkillers like OxyContin, in the government's latest attempt to reduce overdose deaths caused by the long-acting medications.

Addiction

Study: Marijuana top illegal drug used worldwide

Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug used worldwide, but addictions to popular painkillers like Vicodin, Oxycontin and codeine kill the most people, according to the first-ever global survey of illicit drug abuse.

Medications

Drug addicts, dealers are 'Doctor shopping' for pain pills

(HealthDay)—One of every 50 prescriptions for addictive prescription painkillers in the United States is filled for so-called "doctor shoppers" who obtain the drugs for recreational use or resale on the street, a new study ...

Medications

Fearing abuse, US blocks generic OxyContin (Update)

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.

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