Tag: prescription drug abuse
-
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...
-
UK’s chief medical officer says doctors should follow university trauma team’s example and not prescribe an opioid first
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News The University of Kentucky hospital trauma team has adopted a protocol to treat acute pain that they hope will be adopted by the entire...
-
Substance-use treatment under Medicaid jumps, following expansion of program and increase in abuse of painkillers
Kentucky’s expanded Medicaid program covered approximately 11,000 substance-use treatment services in the second quarter of 2016, a huge increase from the 1,500 services from January through March 2014, the first...
-
Officials tout Obama administration’s work on substance abuse
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Officials and health advocates touted the Obama administration’s work in addressing substance-use disorders at a forum Nov. 29, and also advocated for the passage...
-
State drug-control policy office’s legislative package will include putting overdose incidents into prescription database
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News SLADE, Ky. — The executive director of the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy said Friday that his office is working on a legislative...
-
Kentucky behavioral health specialist says the state has been ‘epicenter’ of the nation’s addiction epidemic for almost 20 years
Though the United States’ addiction problem and overdose deaths has sparked national attention, the epidemic in Kentucky dates back to the late 1990s. Geoff Wilson, a Lexington-based substance abuse counselor, said...
-
National Drug Take-Back Day is Oct. 22; Ky. has 194 prescription drop boxes and many State Police posts will participate
Kentuckians are encouraged to turn in any unused or expired prescription drugs Saturday, Oct. 22, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. as part of National Drug Take-Back. The service is...
-
Legislator, citing rural doctor shortages, files bill to give physician assistants authority to prescribe controlled substances
A Republican recently elected to the state House has filed legislation that would allow physician assistants to prescribe controlled substances, something they can do in every other state beginning in...
-
Fighting cancer in Appalachia: Getting people screened ‘is still the hardest part;’ prevention requires multi-pronged effort, experts say
University of Kentucky video Leaders of the National Institutes of Health spent Thursday in Hazard with Fifth District U.S. Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers and local health leaders to examine efforts...
-
Anthem Blue Cross touts its program to help curb opioid abuse, limiting high-risk members to one pharmacy
The opioid epidemic seems to be focused on heroin, but that’s only part of the picture, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield President Deb Moessner writes in an op-ed for...