Heroin and prescription opioid medications have common origins in naturally occurring substances found in the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Among other things, this means that both heroin and prescription opioids are capable of producing fatal opioid overdoses. In a report issued in October 2014 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers from the federal …
Since 2007, the number of people in the U.S. who use the addictive opioid drug heroin has nearly doubled. Not surprisingly, this spike in heroin users has been accompanied by a rise in the number of people who experience heroin overdoses. In a study scheduled for publication in 2014 in the journal Addiction, a team …
The Food and Drug Administration has fast-tracked a nasal spray application of naloxone, a highly effective medicine that helps save the lives of addicts in the midst of a heroin overdose. Faced with an alarming rise in the abuse of opiates such as heroin and prescription painkillers, the FDA moved to accelerate the approval process of …
Naloxone Nasal Device New Way to Treat Heroin Overdose Read More »
One of the many dangers associated with purchasing and using illegal street drugs is that it is difficult to know for certain what is in them. Many drugs have unintentional impurities acquired during the manufacturing process, which can lead to a var
Documentary-style projects ordinarily have their focus firmly on somebody else, offering an insight into the individual’s life from the perspective of a third-party filmmaker. If the filmmaker ensures the individual is comfortable enough, it allows painfully real moments to be immortalized on screen and offers the audience an in-depth look into a new issue. But …
Graham MacIndoe’s Photo Diary Haunting Look at Addiction Read More »
Small cash incentives can dramatically increase the likelihood of people who inject drugs completing a course of hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination, according to new research led by King’s College London. Hepatitis B is an illness caused by the highly infectious hepatitis B virus. In most people, the disease is acute, with serious symptoms that last …
Paying Addicts to Get Hepatitis B Vaccination Pays Off Read More »
Heroin abuse is a problem with potentially fatal consequences. The risk of mortality does not just lie in the many physical problems that can result from abusing heroin over a long period of time. And adding the risk of fatal overdose into the picture doesn’t completely account for the many people who do not survive …
Heroin Addiction Often Signals Need for Mental Health Services Read More »
With stunning speed, on Thursday the FDA approved an injection device designed to deliver naloxone — a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose — for use in the home and other non-hospital settings. The approval comes after a four-month, fast-track priority review, and may represent a tipping point in how heroin and prescription opioid addiction …
FDA Approves Naloxone Auto-Injector for Heroin OD Read More »
Intravenous heroin users rely on a needle and syringe to inject the powerful opioid narcotic heroin directly into the bloodstream. In addition to the risks for drug addiction common to all people who take the drug, IV users have increased risks for serious or fatal bloodborne infections such as hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS. In a …
‘Every “Never” I Ever Said Came True’: Transitions From Opioid Pills to Heroin Injecting Read More »
U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder this week declared rising heroin and opioid overdose deaths “an urgent and public health crisis” and vowed renewed enforcement and treatment efforts. In a five-minute televised video, the nation’s top cop referred to the 45 percent increase from 2004 to 2010 in the fatal overdoses from heroin and other opiates found …
Holder Vows to Fight Heroin Deaths ‘Crisis,’ Treatment Gets Short Shrift Read More »