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Pharmacogenomic Testing in Pain Management and Behavioral Health: A Pharmacist Perspective
Pain, in its many forms (e.g., nociceptive, neuropathic, inflammatory, etc.), affects upwards of 100 million people in the United States resulting in costs reaching $600 billion per year.1 Treatment of pain symptoms through the inappropriate prescribing and use of opioids has fueled an opioid abuse...
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Funding for NYS Opioid Epidemic
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced more than $9 million in federal funding has been secured to expand opioid addiction treatment services across the state. This funding includes $5.7 million to expand access to medication assisted treatment, $2.1 million to develop new recovery centers in areas of...
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Understanding Co-Occurring Disorders: A Mother’s Journey To Turn The Tide On An Epidemic
Co-occurring disorders (COD) is the combination of one or more mental health challenges/disorders and substance misuse/addiction. My son Harris had COD and died by accidental overdose when he was 19. I am so grateful that Behavioral Health News is devoting attention to this topic because...
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Ensuring Evidence-Based Treatment for Substance Use Disorders
The use of heroin, other opiates, and inappropriate prescription drugs are currently a major public health problem in this country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), national death rates from prescription opioid pain reliever overdoses quadrupled during 1999 to...
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Will the Effort to Prevent Overdose Deaths from Prescription Painkillers Work?
Over 16,000 people per year die from overdoses of prescription painkillers (Opioid analgesics)—more than triple the number of deaths two decades ago.(2,4,5,6,12) This vast increase has led to a major public health initiative to reduce the misuse and abuse of these drugs. Will it work? There are...
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Barriers to Medication Assisted Treatment for Opiate Use Disorders
It has become an all too familiar (but no less disturbing) scenario for the nurse practitioner working in a large drug treatment center in upstate New York. Today she is leading an educational support group for individuals who are opiate dependent and awaiting medication assisted treatment with...
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Unintended Consequences: Are We Inadvertently Increasing Heroin Overdose Deaths?
Two years ago, The Fix spearheaded an effort to highlight the public health epidemic caused by the overprescribing of opioid pain medications which resulted in the tens of thousands of overdose deaths that were making front page news. The epidemic was iatrogenic- “caused by physicians”- in...
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The Opioid Addiction Epidemic: An Interview with Andrew Kolodny, MD, National Expert on the Current Opioid Addiction Epidemic in the United States
Ira Minot (IM): We are honored to have this opportunity to speak with you Dr. Kolodny. Our readers are anxious to learn about the current opioid epidemic. Andrew Kolodny (AK): I am very pleased that Behavioral Health News is devoting this issue to the current opioid epidemic. Opioid addiction is...
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The NYSPA Report: A Multifaceted Approach to the Opioid Epidemic
There has been much discussion around NY State and the country about a surge in heroin usage and overdose deaths. Although the perception is that a drop in “doc shopping” caused the increase in heroin usage, the picture is complex and the history goes back further than some may realize. Heroin...
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Seven Steps to Fix the Opioid Addiction Crisis Now: We Already Have Most of the Tools We Need
Recently, Professional Voices revisited an issue that The Fix has been focused on since its inception: the public health debacle caused by the overprescribing of opioid pain medications, and the related increase in heroin use and overdose, which has contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands of...
