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Tag: overdose

  • U.S. Drug overdose deaths are increasing

    The second leading cause of accidental death in the US is drug overdose (JAMA 2007). Prescription painkiller overdose deaths (opioid analgesics like OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone) account for nearly half of the 36,450 total fatal overdoses with 15,000 deaths that have claimed a number of celebrity lives including famous actor Heath Ledger (CDC 2011). With…

  • Saving lives made easy – Treating opiate overdose with intranasal naloxone

    Contributing co-author: Andrew Chen Imagine that you and your friend have been using heroin (or another opiate). A few hours go by and you notice your friend is progressively becoming more and more unresponsive. You check on him and find that his breathing is shallow, his skin is cold, and his pupils are constricted. You…

  • Opioid prescription overdose and abuse – Staying safe while reducing pain

    A new article just published in JAMA (see here) reports a strong relationship between high-dose opiate prescribing and accidental overdose deaths. The authors focused on a sample of Veterans and found that those prescribed more than 50mg of morphine per day, or the equivalent of other opiate drugs, we much more likely to die of…

  • Alcoholism , Sniffing Bath Salts, and Prescription Medication Abuse

    If you care about addiction you’re going to want to read our weekly update from across the globe. It’ll make you smarter – promise (at least when it comes to alcohol and drug abuse issues)! Drug Abuse – Vaccines to treat addictions, and Sniffing Bath Salts Medical News Today-A biochemical breakthrough by researchers at Cornell …

  • About Addiction: Drug use, Addiction Recovery, and smoking

    We’re back with our weekly post about addiction news and research. We’ve got harm reduction in Australia, heroin ads that don’t work, the impact of drug abuse on children, and more. Get your 30 seconds of education for the day. Using Drugs – Heroin, HIV, the law, and recovery The Australian– There is a state…

  • Black tar heroin – Pure Death

    Back in the 70s, heroin was mostly filler, and the good stuff was 5% pure or so. Nowadays a new, more potent, version of the stuff is killing people all around the country with widely varying purities as high as 90%. What makes black tar dangerous When heroin was weak, shooting it was the best…

  • Brittany Murphy dead at 32 – Anemia, pneumonia, and yes, drugs…

    Toxicology update Well, it seems the toxicology reports are in and Brittany’s death was, at least partially, caused by her taking of multiple prescription drugs. Still, it seems that she was trying to medicate a host of conditions brought on by her underlying anemia and pneumonia. It’s sad to think that this death could have…

  • Steven Tyler deals with pain killer addiction by checking into rehab

    After the recent death of Michael Jackson, and possibly Brittany Murphy, due to prescription drug overdoses, Steven Tyler, the lead singer of the mega-band Aerosmith, has checked himself into rehab for pain-killer addiction. Many pain killers commonly used are opiates (which are very similar to heroin), and many chronic-pain sufferers resolve to taking such drugs…

  • Small town heroin addicts – When drug use and overdose hit smalltown USA

    We’ve already talked (see here) about the fact that well-off teens are in no way protected from the damages of drug abuse. We’ve even published a story by a reader who became addicted to heroin after another friend introduced her to snorting oxycontin pills. This recent article, published in the Washington Post, tells the story…

  • About addiction: Prescription overdose, legalization, methadone, and the brain.

    Here are this week’s must reads posts about addiction. Don’t forget to click the title for our related posts! From the other allaboutaddiction (.net) – Overdose deaths due to prescription medication From Addiction Inbox – The economics of drug legalization From Addiction Tomorrow – A great balanced post about methadone From Physorg – The neurological…