Male and female athletes of all ages and types are no strangers to trying to get an edge, to be one up on the competition. The goals are what every athlete wants: to be stronger, faster, and more agile, to have more stamina, increased energy and focus, and to quickly be able to adapt to …
Addicted Athletes: Unintended Consequences of Performance-Enhancing Drugs Read More »
Drug cravings are prominent urges to consume more of a mind-altering drug or medication. The presence of these urges is one of the symptoms that doctors look for when diagnosing various forms of substance use disorder (substance abuse/substance addiction). In a study published in September/October 2014 in The American Journal on Addictions, a team of …
How Does Drug Craving Manifest in People Addicted to Prescription Opioids? Read More »
Researchers and addiction specialists are well aware that people affected by physical dependence and drug addiction commonly have a susceptibility to certain social and environmental cues that make ongoing substance use and relapses during substance treatment more likely. However, fairly little is known about the specific drug cues that motivate people physically dependent on prescription …
Which Drug Use Cues Play a Role in Prescription Opioid Dependence? Read More »
Do drug companies have your doctor on the payroll? More than half a million American doctors and nearly 1,360 teaching hospitals were paid $3.5 billion over five months last year by pharmaceutical and medical device companies, a new federal website has revealed. Some of the companies are among the bigger makers of prescription opiates that …
Open Payments Website Shows Billions in Payments to Doctors Read More »
In many cases, teens try prescription drugs and get hooked on the addictive medication. Soon, however, they are unable to afford the high cost of a drug like OxyContin and begin looking for alternatives to reach a similar high. All too often, that alternative is heroin. Compared to prescription drugs, it is cheap and easy …
A prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) is an official database of information on prescribers and recipients of controlled substances. The idea is that when doctors and pharmacists can see exactly who is obtaining prescription drugs, the public’s ability to abuse those drugs will be minimized. The database is also open to law enforcement. A recent …
Missouri Holds Out on Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs Read More »
The National Football League has been sued by more than 600 retired players, who have charged that they were wrongfully doped with addictive painkillers to keep them on the field at the expense of their health. This marks the second time in a week that makers of opiate drugs have been pulled into lawsuits. On …
Ex-Players Say NFL Handed Out Painkillers ‘Like Candy’ Read More »
The district attorneys of two California counties have sued five giant pharmaceutical companies, charging that they fraudulently marketed highly addictive drugs meant for terminal cancer patients as safe for chronic pain relief. The resulting explosion in prescription painkillers, the plaintiffs allege, has contributed to the nation’s alarming spike in opiate overdose deaths.
A new report from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) should serve as a wake-up call to consumers searching for and buying their medications online. Illegal online drug sellers are the most frequent conduits of counterfeit drugs and pose a continued threat to global public health, the report titled Internet Drug Outlet Identification …
Rogue Internet Drug Sellers Pose Risk to Global Public Health Read More »
A study from the University of Warwick Medical School in Coventry, England, has linked certain anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) and hypnotic (sleeping) drugs with an increased risk of early death. The study was published in the British journal BMJ.