Tag: drug abuse
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County Health Rankings show troubling trend of more premature deaths, contrasting trends among some counties
By Danielle Ray Kentucky Health News The premature death rate is getting worse in 44 of Kentucky’s 120 counties and improving in 12 counties, according to a health rankings report released...
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Louisville’s Our Lady of Peace opens first retail pharmacist-operated, long-acting injection clinic; will mostly treat opioid abuse
Insider Louisville photo Kentucky is again leading the nation in finding ways to combat the...
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Kentucky lawmakers have passed several health-related bills to deal with the opioid epidemic, and could pass several more
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News FRANKFORT, Ky. – The 2017 General Assembly has passed several bills meant to put more “tools in the toolbox” as the state works to...
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Nurse practitioners ease doctor shortage, but will have to wait to get more authority to prescribe narcotics; opioid epidemic cited
Nurse practitioner Robin Szczapinski talks with her patient, Harold Brashear Sr., at the Louisville Veterans Affairs Medical Center. (Courier-Journal photo by Maggie Huber) They’re not doctors, but they do a lot...
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House sends Senate bill to limit most potent painkiller prescriptions to three days, target traffickers of fentanyl
The state House has sent to the Senate a bill to put a three-day limit on prescriptions of high-potency painkillers, and increase penalties for the sale of fentanyl, in an...
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KET examines successful recoveries from opioid addiction, airs a forum to discuss Kentucky’s opioid crisis
Kentucky Educational Television is airing “Journey to Recovery,” a documentary that looks at Kentucky’s opioid epidemic and explores the state’s available treatment options through personal stories of recovery. The program,...
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Pharmacies dispensing opioids thrive in Clay County, which leads Kentucky in doses of hydrocodone per person: 150 a year
Pharmacies dispensing opioids are thriving in an impoverished, coal-depressed county in Eastern Kentucky, Phil Galewitz reports for Kaiser Health News. In Clay County (Wikipedia map) the unemployment rate is 8.4 percent,...
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Drug-addicted babies more than twice as likely in Kentucky as in rest of nation, but few facilities accept addicted pregnant women
Amy Kalber of Louisville strokes her infant son, Marty Barkley,in a family gathering. Her first two children were born addicted,but the last two were born healthy during her recovery, describedby...
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Ky. has 25 approved syringe exchanges to reduce risk of HIV and hepatitis C outbreaks; other counties debate proposals
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News A minister, a nurse and a physician assistant joined forces in Powell County to educate its citizens about a syringe-exchange program, which should open...
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Reformulation of OxyContin to make it abuse-deterrent is main reason for shift to heroin and deaths from it, study concludes
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News The reformulation of OxyContin in 2010 is the main reason for the large increase in heroin overdose in recent years, according to a working paper...