NAS and Opioid Policy in the News

New cases of hepatitis C have nearly tripled in the past five years, driven mostly by people sharing needles to inject drugs, federal health officials said. Read more here: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/americas-heroin-epidemic/new-hepatitis-c-infections-triple-driven-drug-use-cdc-says-n758156

The nation’s pediatricians are beefing up their warning about teenagers and marijuana use.  Read more here: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/02/27/teens-and-marijuana/

The rate of babies exposed to opioids in utero is increasing dramatically in rural America, a U-M study finds. Read more here: http://labblog.uofmhealth.org/industry-dx/study-rural-communities-see-steep-increase-babies-born-opioid-withdrawal

Case examples and a suggested framework for states to consider when planning efforts aimed at addressing the NAS epidemic.       Read more here: http://www.astho.org/Prevention/Rx/NAS-Framework/

There has been a five-fold increase in babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) from 2000 to 2012.  These babies are a part of why HHS has made addressing the opioid epidemic a Department-wide priority. In collaboration with partners across federal government, SAMHSA is sharpening its focus on opioid-dependent pregnant women.

Many experts say the prescription painkiller epidemic started when physicians began over-prescribing powerful opioid medications, a well-meaning attempt to more aggressively treat patients' pain. With addiction to those pills at crisis levels, they argue, a good part of the solution would be for doctors to rein in use of the drugs.

In one of the first looks at privately insured patients with opioid problems, researchers paint a grim picture: Medical services for people with opioid dependence diagnoses skyrocketed more than 3,000 percent between 2007 and 2014. Read more here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/opioid-dependence-leads-tsunami-medical-services-study-finds/

More than half of adults and 44 percent of children who were drug-tested by a national clinical laboratory last year misused their prescription medications, according to a study released Monday by Quest Diagnostics. Misuse of medications can mean that patients were either taking too much, too little or none of their medications. It also can mean test results showed they were using other drugs that had not been prescribed, including illicit drugs -- as 45 percent of adults were doing, the study found.

President Obama has committed to sign the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which includes among its provisions new policies to reduce inappropriate prescribing of prescription opioids such as Oxycontin and Vicodin. Given the ongoing epidemic of addiction and death caused by opioid painkillers, this seems like sensible public-health policy, but some critics charge that tighter prescribing rules simply cause prescription opioid users to switch to heroin, thereby feeding a second opioid epidemic. 

The data analytics approach was used to understand the link between opioid overdose deaths and the legal use of prescribed opioids. Read more here: http://wwlp.com/2016/07/26/new-data-illegally-obtained-opioids-is-the-driving-force-behind-epidemic/