Tag: drugs
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Painkiller epidemic was driven in part by drug makers’ financial relationships with researchers who discounted the risks
For almost a decade, medical officials and experts claimed OxyContin rarely posed problems of addiction for patients. The drug’s label, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, said addiction...
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Generic OxyContin and Opana, headed for market soon, could make fight against pain-pill abuse tougher, McConnell says
With generic versions of the two most commonly-abused painkillers, Opana and OxyContin, coming on the market next year, police, hospitals and health clinics in Kentucky have voiced concern that “these...
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Deaths from drug overdoses in Kentucky hit new high in 2010; more than half involved prescription drugs
Deaths from drug overdoses in Kentucky jumped to a new high in 2010, and “rose a staggering 296 percent from 2000 to 2010,” Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. “A...
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Here are the seven factors driving health care cost increases
Escalating health care costs are everybody’s problem and no one entity’s fault. Julie Appleby at Kaiser Health News reports that the United States spends about18 percent of its gross domestic...
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Covington police chief: New prescription-drug law has unintended consequence of encouraging pain pill addicts to use heroin, commit crimes
Black tar heroin Kentucky’s new prescription drug law may be having its desired effect of taking prescription painkillers off the streets, but could be forcing those very same addicts into...
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Pill-mill bill causing problems for patients who have long-term prescriptions: expensive drug-screening tests
In July, Kentucky started making long-time holders of certain controlled-substances prescriptions submit to urine tests to determine if they were actually taking the drugs, rather than selling them. Because insurance companies...
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Government says health-reform law to save average Kentuckian with Medicare coverage $5,000 through 2022
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will likely save the average person with traditional Medicare coverage $5,000 from 2010 to 2022,...
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Doctor complaints about bill aimed at reducing prescription drug abuse largely based on misconceptions, health officials say
State health officials say doctors’ complaints about House Bill 1, which cracks down on pill mills and doctors who supply the illegal prescription pill trade, result from misunderstandings and misconceptions about the...
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Study finds ‘the link between cholesterol and cancer is clear’
University of Rochester Medical Center scientists have verified a link between cholesterol and cancer with new genetic evidence, raising the possibility that cholesterol medications such as statin drugs could be...
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State task force will look at substance abuse, mental health care for military members, veterans and families
To help the increasing number of veterans and military service personnel who are needing treatment for substance abuse and mental health issues in Kentucky, a task force has been assembled...