Addiction Medicine Updates

The Governor’s Institute’s Board Chair and RTI International prevention scientist Dr. Phillip Graham presented on “Prevention of Misuse and Escalation to OUD: Nida’s HEAL Prevention Initiative” at the Addiction Medicine Conference 2020 held May 1 and 2. Dr. Graham...

Dr. Susan McDowell, a family physician at MAHEC, presented on vaping at the virtual Addiction Medicine Conference 2020. We followed up with a participant question about racial and ethnic disparities. Here is her anwer: “Vaping is similar to conventional cigarettes in...

On May 1, Dr. Christopher Jones of the CDC presented the opening plenary at the Governor's Institute's Addiction Medicine 2020 conference on “The Evolving Overdose Epidemic in the U.S. and the Public Health Response.” We followed up with Dr. Jones to get answers to...

Systematic studies and meta-analyses are of the highest value for evidence on prognosis, efficacy, effectiveness, and risk. But they often do not reflect the complexity of individual patient experiences or cases in their contexts. Case reports can provide valuable...

Tens of thousands of people die every year from untreated drug and alcohol use. Healthcare has effective tools including medications for opioid and alcohol use disorder that could prevent many of these deaths, but they are not being widely utilized and a lot of people...

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) has released its National Practice Guideline (NPG) 2020 which is intended to inform and empower clinicians, health system administrators, criminal justice system administrators and policymakers who are interested in...

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) is looking for passionate members willing to serve as faculty to offer live and online CME opportunities. Members interested in applying must complete a faculty application. Faculty will be based on eligibility...

According to NPR, a January report found that 40% of U.S. counties do not have a single health care provider approved to prescribe buprenorphine, a medicine essential to helping many patients beat opioid addiction. But under the national emergency declared by the...

Rising economic pressures and health concerns combined with social isolation during the COVID-19 outbreak have led to spikes in people seeking mental health care and using drugs and alcohol. This has sparked a rallying cry from experts and advocacy groups for more...

The Injury and Violence Prevention Branch of the Division of Public Health recently revised the provisional data on opioid-related poisoning deaths (NC OCME), opioid overdose emergency department visits (NC DETECT) and statewide harm reduction data (NCHRC). Since many...

People who have been incarcerated are approximately 100 times more likely to die by overdose in the first 2 weeks after their release than the general public. To reduce risk of opioid overdose and recidivism and to better serve incarcerated individuals with opioid use...

Nearly twice as many people in the United States used heroin in 2018 as did in 2002, according to a new government study. During the same time period, deaths from heroin overdoses also jumped, from just under 2,100 deaths in 2002 to more than 15,000 deaths in 2018....