(Reuters Health)—When one person in a household gets prescribed opioids, the other people who live with them are more likely to get their own prescriptions for these narcotic painkillers, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined data on about 12.6 million people living in a household where someone was prescribed opioids and 6.4 million individuals in…
Kentucky Accuses Endo of Contributing to Opioid Epidemic
(Reuters)—Kentucky accused units of Endo International Plc. on Monday of contributing to drug overdoses by deceptively marketing its painkiller Opana ER, in the latest lawsuit by state or local governments against the drugmaker amid an opioid epidemic. Kentucky Attorney General Steve Beshear said the lawsuit would seek to hold Endo responsible for illegally building a…
FDA Sets Stricter Requirements for Immediate-Release Opioids to Prevent Misuse & Abuse
The FDA is expanding its Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) to include manufacturers of immediate-release opioids. The makers of these drugs will soon be required to provide training and education to healthcare professionals on the proper prescription and use of the drugs for pain management…
Pain Treatments Move Closer to U.S. Market
Two pain treatments, extended-release injectable suspension triamcinolone acetonide (Zilretta) and meloxicam, have seen movement at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In October, the agency approved Zilretta to treat osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain and accepted a new drug application for meloxicam to treat pain. FDA Approves Zilretta On Oct. 6, the FDA approved extended-release,…
Unbudgeted: How the Opioid Crisis Is Blowing a Hole in Small-Town America’s Finances
INDIANA, Pa./CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (Reuters)—As deaths mount in America’s opioid crisis, communities on the front lines face a hidden toll: the financial cost. Ross County, a largely rural region of 77,000 people an hour south of Columbus, Ohio, is wrestling with an explosion in opioid-related deaths—44 last year compared with 19 in 2009. The drug addiction…
Ibuprofen More Likely to Raise BP than Naproxen or Celecoxib
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Ibuprofen boosts blood pressure (BP) more than naproxen or celecoxib in patients who take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to treat arthritis, according to a new substudy from the PRECISION trial. “These drugs are different with regard to BP, and ibuprofen is the worst,” Dr. Frank Ruschitzka of University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland,…
Opioid Use in U.S. RA Patients
Nationally, opioid use and addiction are drawing increased scrutiny. An increase in the number of overdoses and addiction to heroin and prescription pain relievers in the past decade has been attributed in part to increased prescribing of opioids for the treatment of pain by physicians. National trends suggest the rate of opioid prescribing plateaued in…
Little Evidence Shows Cannabis Helps Chronic Pain or PTSD
(Reuters Health)—Even though pain and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are among the most common reasons people use medical marijuana in the U.S., there isn’t much proof cannabis works for either one of these conditions, two research reviews suggest. That’s because there hasn’t been enough high-quality research to produce conclusive evidence of the benefits or harms…
New Hampshire Sues Purdue Pharma over Opioid Marketing
(Reuters)—New Hampshire sued OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP on Tuesday, joining several state and local governments in accusing the drugmaker of engaging in deceptive marketing practices that have helped fuel a national opioid addiction epidemic. The lawsuit filed in Merrimack County Superior Court claimed that Purdue Pharma significantly downplayed the risk of addiction posed by…
DEA Proposes Cutting Production of Come Opioids
(Reuters)—The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Friday proposed a 20% reduction in the manufacture of certain commonly prescribed opioid painkillers, as well as other controlled substances for next year. The proposal comes as U.S. regulators and lawmakers take steps to limit the supply of opioids—a class of drugs that include prescription painkillers and heroin—to…
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