Tuesday, December 27, 2016

How scientists are hunting for a safer opioid painkiller | Science News

An opioid epidemic is upon us. Prescription painkillers such as fentanyl and morphine can ease terrible pain, but they can also cause addiction and death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 2 million Americans are abusing or addicted to prescription opiates. Politicians are attempting to stem the tide at state and national levels, with bills to change and monitor how physicians prescribe painkillers and to increase access to addiction treatment programs.

Those efforts may make access to painkillers more difficult for some. But pain comes to everyone eventually, and opioids are one of the best ways to make it go away.  

Morphine is the king of pain treatment. "For hundreds of years people have used morphine," says Lakshmi Devi, a pharmacologist at the Ichan School of Medicine Mount Sinai in New York City.  "It works, it's a good drug, that's why we want it. The problem is the bad stuff."

More ...

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Pain News Network

Pain News Network is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, independent online news source for information and commentary about chronic pain and pain management. Our mission is to raise awareness about chronic pain, and to connect and educate pain sufferers, caregivers, healthcare providers and the public about the pain experience. We reach over 100,000 people (unique readers) each month.

https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/

An opioid epidemic is what happens when pain is treated only with pills - The Washington Post

Too many opioids. Not enough opioids. Behold the opioid paradox.

The United States is in the midst of a massive opioid epidemic, as The Washington Post and other news organizations have documented extensively. In 2015, more than 33,000 people died from overdoses of opioids, meaning prescription painkillers, heroin, fentanyl or any combination. That easily keeps pace here with fatal motor vehicle accidents and gun-related deaths.

Certain states have been particularly affected. The Charleston Gazette just reported that opioid wholesalers shipped 780 million oxycodone and hydrocodone pills into West Virginia over a six-year period — enough for 433 pills for every person in the state. Meanwhile, 1,728 West Virginians died from overdoses of those two drugs.

But there's another side to the story. Opioids can be an effective treatment for chronic pain, and too many people around the world have limited access to them.

"We view pain relief as a human rights issue," Kathleen Foley, a neurologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said at a Princeton symposium on pain and opioids this month. Historically, she said, pain has been under-treated, and she is concerned that the opioid epidemic "has stigmatized all patients with pain."

Even in this country, some patients may be denied opioids because doctors are not convinced their described pain is real or fear the pills will be diverted to the illegal market. Keith Wailoo, a Princeton historian of medicine and health policy, who also spoke at the symposium, calls it a "pain gap" and says it is why African Americans with sickle cell disease, for example, have reported trouble getting prescription painkillers. "Think of it as a pain gap between the haves and the have-nots, along lines of class and race," Wailoo wrote in the Daily Beast.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/12/23/an-opioid-epidemic-is-what-happens-when-pain-is-treated-only-with-pills/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.fb49c82e397d