opioids

Dear Doctor: I try not to use opioids for my chronic back pain, but I'm finding myself turning to them more often. Could marijuana help? Dear Reader: Pain is one of most difficult aspects of medicine to understand. No one can [...]

Abuse of opioid pain relievers is a serious and growing public health concern in the U.S., and around the world. If you need to take opioids, carefully weigh the risks and benefits with your doctor — especially if they’re being prescribed for chronic non-cancer pain rather than for temporary [...]

This just in from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Drug overdose death rates have increased for all age groups in the United States, to more than 2.5 times the rate in 1999. In hard numbers, that means 6.1 deaths per 100,000 people were linked to drug [...]

As we’ve seen from the much-reported rise in abuse of prescription opioids, use of the painkillers can be fatal when not properly managed. But even under the careful supervision of a physician, opioid use can cause a less severe problem – opioid-induced constipation, leading to delays in a patient’s [...]