Over many years, I have resuscitated countless numbers of patients dying from a drug overdose while working as an emergency physician. I knew I had to stop everything else I was doing and treat the overdose patient immediately because they could die within minutes. We...
New data shows a surge in overdose deaths involving fentanyl and methamphetamine. Overall, the nation saw a 15 percent increase in deaths from overdoses in 2021. Read more...
OAKLAND — Dr. Andrew Herring has a clear goal walking into every appointment with patients seeking medication to treat an opioid use disorder: persuade them to get an injection of extended-release buprenorphine. At his addiction clinic at Highland Hospital, a bustling public facility in the heart of Oakland,...
The last 20 years have seen a staggering increase in opioid-related morbidity and mortality. Although the consequences of untreated OUDs are significant, OUD is a treatable illness. This article reviews the epidemiology of OUD and its complications, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and harm reduction interventions. Read more...
You’ve heard about supply-chain disruptions causing shortages and inflation, but here’s a surprising contributor: misguided drug policy. The U.S. trucking industry is short some 80,000 drivers in a country where more than 70% of commercial goods reach their destination via truck. One reason is that...
At a party in Venice in September, four people overdosed from what they thought was cocaine, three of them dying before paramedics arrived. The cocaine they used reportedly contained fentanyl. The deaths were another example of what has taken place across the U.S. over the last few...
My oldest brother, Blake, was six years my senior. Despite our age difference, he never made me feel like his annoying little sister. He taught me how to tie my shoes when I was four and to play basketball in our driveway, how to fight...
My son Aaron was 19 years old when he died. His death certificate says the cause of death was asphyxia. The actual cause was meth addiction and mental illness. There was more to Aaron than that, just as there is more to so many like him....
Journalists have largely presented the overdose crisis as a story of three interconnected and perhaps inevitable waves. First, drug companies, led by Purdue Pharma, maker of the notorious OxyContin, convinced gullible doctors to prescribe unneeded opioids. This led to hundreds of thousands of new addictions in the 1990s...
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, opioid misuse has continued unabated in the United States, with an estimated 2.5 million or more Americans suffering from opioid use disorder. Most people treated for the disorder are given medications, such as buprenorphine, that activate opioid receptors. But there...