The opioid epidemic: Six essential reads
More Americans died from drug overdose in 2014 than any year on record and six in 10 of those involved opioids. How did we get here and what to do about it?
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Opioids
Displaying 1 - 20 of 30 articles
Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids sold as counterfeits in deadly new trend
Counterfeit drugs and heroin laced with illicitly made fentanyl have been linked to overdoses across the country. So what can be done?
Is misuse of prescription painkillers among youth athletes leading to heroin use?
Media reports have suggested that many young athletes who become injured abuse prescription painkillers and may move to heroin. One of the first studies to look at this suggests otherwise.
Some good news on opioid epidemic: Treatment options are expanding
The nation is still in the grip of an opioid addiction epidemic, but there is some good news. Treatment options are expanding, as professionals learn more about the illness.
Despite national efforts to fight addiction, states can tailor – and trim – programs
The Senate passed a bill July 13 to address the opioid epidemic. Georgia recently passed a bill that would limit rather than expand the number of treatment centers. Could others follow suit?
Weekly Dose: codeine doesn’t work for some people, and works too well for others
About 8% of the population is unable to metabolise codeine, and a small number metabolise it at a much larger extent.
Prince’s death from fentanyl is only the tip of the global overdose iceberg
Prince’s death was recorded as accidental. Accidents are common when it comes fentanyl, a powerful pain killer 100 times stronger than morphine.
What is chronic pain and why is it hard to treat?
Unrelieved pain contributes more to human suffering than any other disease.
Weekly dose: treating heroin dependence with heroin
Heroin was used medically in Australia for coughs and pain relief until 1953.
Why it’s easier to be prescribed an opioid painkiller than the treatment for opioid addiction
The FDA just approved a new implant of a drug that treats opioid addiction. Why hasn't the drug been prescribed more widely already?
Is addiction a brain disease?
What exactly is addiction? What role, if any, does choice play? And if addiction involves choice, how can we call it a "brain disease," with its implications of involuntariness?
Oxycontin: how Purdue Pharma helped spark the opioid epidemic
The sources of the opioid epidemic are complex, but one powerful motivator has been the pursuit of profit.
Not everyone who takes painkillers for fun is an addict; some have just found a different way to cope
We don't know enough about the people who use painkillers non-medically to make the judgement that there is a natural transition from legal to illicit drug use.
The other opioid crisis – people in poor countries can’t get the pain medication they need
Why are so many people in dire need of pain relief unable to access the powerful painkillers that are so commonly prescribed in the United States?
Humanizing the heroin epidemic: a photo essay
Hoping to avoid the pitfalls and tropes of drug genre photography, documentary photographer Aaron Goodman spent a year following three addicts enrolled in a heroin-assisted treatment program.
Roots of opioid epidemic can be traced back to two key changes in pain management
We are witnessing widespread abuse of legal, prescribed drugs that, while structurally similar to illicit opioids such as heroin, are used for sound medical practices. So how did we get here?
Can we curb the opioid abuse epidemic by rethinking chronic pain?
A sea change in pain treatment helped create the opioid abuse epidemic, and another sea change in how doctors view chronic pain could help curb it.
From the clinic to the street: How the explosion in prescription painkillers has created more heroin users
Why have the demographics of heroin use changed so much? For that, we can look to dramatic increase in prescriptions for opioid painkillers, such as Oxycontin or Vicodin.
Explainer: what is naloxone and how can it help save drug users who overdose?
Naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, is a medicine that temporarily reverses the effects of opioid drugs such as heroin, morphine and oxycodone.
The stigma against people who use heroin makes it harder for them to get help
Stigma toward heroin use might prevent a lot of people from using the drug, but these attitudes don't help people who are dependent.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor of Sociology, Bentley University
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Emeritus Consultant, St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst
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Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University
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Emeritus Professor, University of Melbourne
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Professor and Director, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
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Professor of Criminology, Western Sydney University
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Academic Registrar - Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne
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Professor, University of Adelaide
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Executive Director, South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute
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Professor of Emergency Medicine and Community Health Sciences, Boston University
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Associate professor and Co-Director, Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness, Johns Hopkins Medicine
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Research data analyst, Johns Hopkins University
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Johns Hopkins University
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Assistant Professor of Population Health, New York University Langone Medical Center
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Assistant Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University
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