Officials Desperate For Solutions Amid Opioid Crisis Embrace New Device. But Addiction Experts Are Skeptical.
A device called the Bridge is supposed to ease symptoms of withdrawal, but specialists are doubtful that the electronic nerve stimulator works. In other news on the drug crisis: Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he would have tough questions for drugmakers if he was still in Congress; Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) speaks about her family's experience dealing with addiction; a look at babies who are born exposed to hepatitis C; and more.
NPR:
Study Questions: Bridge Device For Opioid Withdrawal
To the untrained, the evidence looks promising for a new medical device to ease opioid withdrawal. A small study shows that people feel better when the device, an electronic nerve stimulator called the Bridge, is placed behind their ear. The company that markets the Bridge is using the study results to promote its use to anyone who will listen: policymakers, criminal justice officials and health care providers. The message is working. (Harper, 5/2)
The Washington Post:
Sessions To Opioid Distributors: ‘I’m Not Shedding Any Tears If You’re No Longer Making Profits’
Next week, top executives from the nation’s largest distributors of prescription painkillers will testify before Congress about the role their companies played in the deadliest drug crisis in U.S. history. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that if he were still senator, he would have tough questions and choice words for the company executives. “This has been a colossal detriment to America, and you have profited enormously by it,” Sessions said he would tell them. “And I’m not shedding any tears if you’re no longer making profits.” (Horwitz and Zezima, 5/1)
The Associated Press:
Wisconsin Senator Talks About Late Mother's Opioid Addiction
Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who is running for re-election this year in Wisconsin, opened up Tuesday about her mother's mental illness and prescription drug addiction, in a moment of candor Baldwin hoped would empower others with similar experiences to come forward. "This epidemic hits close to home for me and for so many others," Baldwin said, sitting across the table from a Milwaukee woman who also told her story of her father's struggles with addiction. (5/1)
PBS NewsHour:
As Opioid Crisis Grows, Babies And Moms With Hepatitis C Fly Under The Radar
A growing number of infants are born exposed to hepatitis C, but fewer than a third are later screened to monitor and treat the potentially fatal virus, according to a recent study based out of a hospital in Pittsburgh that experts say highlights a trend unfolding across the country. Between 2006 and 2014, obstetrician-gynecologist Catherine Chappell and her colleagues at Magee-Women’s Hospital in Pittsburgh noticed a 60 percent increase in moms-to-be who tested positive for hepatitis C. (Santhanam, 5/2)
Los Angeles Times:
If You're Worried About Prescription Opioids, You Should Be Really Scared Of Fentanyl
The U.S. opioid crisis has passed a dubious milestone: Overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids like illicit fentanyl have surpassed deaths involving prescription opioids. This switch occurred in 2016, according to data published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. And it seemed to happen pretty suddenly. Data from the National Vital Statistics System show that there were 42,249 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2016. That includes 19,413 that involved synthetic opioids, 17,087 that involved prescription opioids and 15,469 that involved heroin. (In some cases, more than one type of drug was implicated in the death.) (Kaplan, 5/1)
Denver Post:
Two Colorado Nurses Sentenced To Prison After Repeatedly Stealing Opioids From Hospitals
Two Colorado nurses who repeatedly put patients at risk by stealing powerful painkillers from the hospitals where they worked had already lost jobs at other health-care facilities for similar behavior, court documents show. It is the latest in a string of cases in which medical professionals in Colorado hopped from hospital to hospital without their drug problems being identified. (Osher, 5/1)
St. Louis Public Radio:
Minus State Action, St. Louis County Drug Monitoring Program Expands
Last year, frustrated with a lack of commitment from state legislators, St. Louis County created its own prescription-drug monitoring program with the specific expectation other areas of the state could join in – and they have. ... Missouri remains the only state without a comprehensive drug monitoring program, one of the many tools states have begun using with the hopes of reducing overdoses and opioid addictions. (Fentem, 5/1)
Minnesota Public Radio:
$20 Million In Opioid Funding Advances In Senate With Slight Change
The opioid stewardship bill advanced in the state Senate on Tuesday after the bill's author replaced the "penny-a-pill" fee on opioid sales with an annual $20 million in set registration fees to be paid by pharmaceutical companies. The funding would pay for programs to address the opioid overdose epidemic, as well as to pay some of the cost, currently born by counties, of caring for families affected by addiction. (Collins, 5/1)
Orlando Sentinel:
Immediate Physical Therapy For Low Back Pain May Reduce Health-Care Costs, Opioid Use, Study Shows
Patients with acute low back pain who get a referral for physical therapy, and are treated within three days, use fewer opioids and have lower health-care costs, according to a study led by a University of Central Florida researcher. The study also showed that early physical therapy lowered the need for health-care services such as advanced imaging, spinal injection, emergency room visits and spine surgery. (Miller, 5/1)
The New York Times:
Veterinarian Charged With Smuggling Heroin Inside Puppies
Of the puppies rescued in 2005 from a farm in Medellín, Colombia, and saved from fates as international drug couriers, one, a Rottweiler, was adopted by the Colombian National Police and trained as a drug-detection dog, investigators said. Another, a Basset Hound, went home with an officer as a family pet. (Baker and Piccoli, 5/1)
