Keeping you in-the-know about addiction and recovery.
Aware Recovery Care and Speranza Therapeutic Partnering to Offer Medication Free Opioid Detox
Reviewed by: gbaumbach Aware Recovery Care is now partnering with Speranza Therapeutics to offer clients a medication-free option for detox from opiates. S.T. Genesis™ is an FDA-cleared Percutaneous Nerve Field Stimulator (PNFS) that supports the reduction of opioid withdrawal symptoms through mild electrical stimulation to branches of cranial nerves V,
Can New Genetic Test Help in the Battle Against Alcoholism?
Reviewed by: gbaumbach Twenty million Americans struggle with alcohol abuse. Another 65 million report recent episodes of binge drinking. Eighty-eight thousand U.S. citizens die annually from the effects of alcoholism. Roughly eight percent of those with alcohol abuse syndrome seek treatment – and of those, only 20% receive medication-assisted treatment.
Emergency Room Overdose Admissions Up
Reviewed by: gbaumbach In a paper published this month by the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University report an alarming surge in opioid overdose emergency room admissions during the current pandemic. According to the data released, visits to the VCU Medical Center emergency room for
New Clues Emerge on Alcohol and Dementia
Reviewed by: gbaumbach It has long been known that alcohol abuse often leads to significant cognitive decline – even dementia. The puzzling question is, why? Medical researchers in Austria have discovered a possible cause. Iron deposits in the brains of heavy drinkers. The cause of those deposits? According to the
Study – Popular Addiction Treatment Drug Underutilized.
Reviewed by: gbaumbach As opioid overdose deaths rise across America, a number of addiction specialists are asking an important question. Why are so few physicians prescribing buprenorphine (or Bupe) —an opioid-based drug shown to be helpful in the treatment of addiction? The question is a good one. Some experts suggest
Language Clues to Drinking Problems
Reviewed by: gbaumbach Throughout the ages, people have used different words to describe how they felt when drunk. In the 1920s, “blotto” was used. In the ’50s, “honkers” was commonly used. Researchers from Penn State now believe the language a young person uses to describe how they feel when they
Another Warning About Opioids
Reviewed by: gbaumbach For over twenty years, physicians in the U.S. have overprescribed opioids. As an example, in 2017 alone, health care providers in the U.S. wrote more than 191 million prescriptions for opioids—a rate of 58.7 prescriptions per 100 people. The result? Hundreds of thousands of people have died
Key Addiction Treatment Option Missing at Many Treatment Centers
Reviewed by: gbaumbach Medication-assisted treatment of addiction is hailed by many experts as “must have” for effective addiction treatment care. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that such treatment is anything but standard care at most residential treatment centers in the U.S. According
FDA Releases New Opioid Guidelines
Reviewed by: gbaumbach The Food and Drug Administration has just announced new opioid prescribing guidelines for physicians. The new guidance is simple. If your patient doesn’t have a history of addiction, educate them about naloxone (often referred to as Narcan), a drug that can counteract an opioid overdose in minutes.
Drug Overdoses Exploding as COVID-19 Rages
Reviewed by: gbaumbach With all the focus on COVID-19, a second, little-noticed but deadly epidemic has been spreading across the nation. Until now… According to hospital and police records, drug overdoses nationally jumped 18 percent in March (the start of the pandemic), 29 percent in April, and 42 percent in
Are We Losing the Fight on Overdose Deaths?
Reviewed by: gbaumbach Very sad news… According to the New York Times: Drug deaths in America, which fell for the first time in 25 years in 2018, rose to record numbers in 2019 and are continuing to climb, a resurgence that is being complicated and perhaps worsened by the coronavirus
Study – Follow-up Treatments After Opioid Overdose Are Rare
Reviewed by: gbaumbach A new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine suggests the medical community still has much to learn about the dangers of opioid addiction. In a nationwide study of approximately 6,500 privately insured patients, researchers discovered that the overwhelming majority of people admitted to emergency