Novel Ways Developed Help Fight Opioid Crisis Better

Certain breakthroughs for opioid use disorders have developed like an interim treatment, safer opioids and can also help people choose between treatments.

New ways to help combat the opioid epidemic like to treat faster, develop safer opioids and help people choose between treatments have been developed, reveals a new study.

Nearly, 2 million people are struggling with opioid use disorders in the U.S. A number of recent breakthroughs are being presented at the conference of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Opioid Use Disorders Among Patients On Rise in Emergency Room
Complications related to substance use disorders have been on the rise in the Emergency Department, which paves way for radiologists to provide care for these patients.

‘Better treatment options developed can help fight opioid crisis in patients.’

Opioids, often prescribed as pain medications, have now become the country’s leading cause of drug overdose.

An interim treatment can get people medication sooner: As the opioid crisis continues to escalate, the number of people who need treatment for their dependency on heroin or prescription painkillers far exceeds the capacity of available treatment programs.

People seeking treatment can wait months or even years for spots in clinics or with certified doctors and while they wait, they risk becoming infected with HIV or hepatitis, as well as dying from an overdose. But researchers have found an intervention for reducing these risks among opioid-dependent people who are stuck on waitlists.

Moderate to Severe Pain Increases the Risk of Opioid Addiction by 41%
People with moderate or more severe pain had a 41% higher risk of developing prescription opioid use disorders than those without.

The interim therapy could help protect patients from the potentially fatal dangers of illegal opioid use by safely and responsibly providing medication while they await more intensive treatment.

Safer opioid drugs could save lives: Opioid drugs are the most widely prescribed and effective type of pain medication, but they are highly addictive and have some unpleasant and potentially deadly side effects.

Opioid Drugs Without Side Effects
A way to make opioids safer has been unraveled by separating the drugs' pain-relieving effects from their most dangerous side effect, respiratory suppression.

Researchers may have found a way to make opioids safer by separating the drugs’ pain relieving effects from their most dangerous side effect, respiratory suppression, which, in very severe cases, causes patients to stop breathing and to die.

Such opioids could help patients and doctors deal with drug tolerance, a frequent complication in which, over time, patients lose sensitivity to the pain-blocking properties of opioids and require higher doses to treat their pain.

Number of Opioid-Related Deaths Increased Tremendously
Just over 60 percent of individuals who died from an opioid overdose had been diagnosed with a chronic pain condition or psychiatric disorder.

And as opioid overdose deaths are mostly due to respiratory suppression, safer prescription opioids could ultimately decrease the number of deaths caused by abusing prescription opioids.

Trials can help people choose between treatments: Two medications, buprenorphine and naltrexone representing pharmacologically and conceptually opposite approaches are available for office-based treatment.

Yet until now, patients, families, and providers have had no data to help guide their choice of treatment.

New findings from two trials (one in the US, one in Norway) comparing these approaches will help people choose between the two very different treatments.

Source-Eurekalert