Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'I Feel Like I'm Kind Of ... Cheating': The Battle Over Medication-Assisted Treatment For Opioid Addiction
The New York Times: In Rehab, ‘Two Warring Factions’: Abstinence Vs. Medication
Just past a cemetery along a country road, an addiction treatment center called JourneyPure at the River draws hundreds of patients a month who are addicted to opioids and other drugs. They divide their days between therapy sessions, songwriting, communing with horses and climbing through a treetop ropes course. After dinner, they’re driven into town in white vans for 12-step meetings. (Goodnough, 12/29)
The Wall Street Journal: Fentanyl’s New Foe: A Quick Test Strip That Can Prevent Overdoses
There is a new tool to help battle the opioid epidemic that works like a pregnancy test to detect fentanyl, the potent substance behind the escalating number of deaths roiling communities around the country. The test strip, originally designed for the medical profession to test urine, can also be used off-label by heroin and cocaine users who fear their drugs have been adulterated with the synthetic opioid fentanyl. The strips are dipped in water containing a minute amount of a drug and generally provide a result within a minute—with one line indicating positive for fentanyl, and two lines negative. (Campo-Flores, 12/31)
The Hill: Opioid Deaths In Children, Teens On The Rise: Study
Opioid-related deaths among teens and young children have nearly tripled since 1999, according to a study published Friday in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and found that 8,986 children and adolescents under the age of 20 died from opioid-related causes between 1999 and 2016 in what the researchers referred to as an "epidemic" of abuse. (Bowden, 12/28)
The Wall Street Journal: Deaths Level Off—And Even Decline—In Some Opioid Hotspots
New Hampshire is close to posting its first decline in drug deaths in six years, echoing trends in some other states as the national overdose-fatality rate appears to be leveling off. The state medical examiner’s office earlier this month projected there would be 437 drug deaths this year, a 10% decline from 2017, when the fatality rate plateaued. Before that, New Hampshire’s numbers had climbed steadily since 2013. (Kamp, 12/31)
The Washington Post: Time Is Running Out For Federally Funded Mental-Health Clinics
An experimental mental-health and addiction treatment program that has shown early success in combating the opioid crisis is at risk of losing its federal funding. An estimated 9,000 patients could lose access to medication-assisted treatment, and 3,000 clinic jobs could be lost if the funding is not renewed, according to the National Council for Behavioral Health. Some states may feel the impact as early as January, because clinics must give staff 60 to 90 days’ termination notice. (Marcus, 12/27)
Reuters: Drug Use During Pregnancy Not Child Abuse: Pennsylvania Top Court
A divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Friday that mothers who use illegal drugs during their pregnancies are not committing child abuse against their newly-born children. Reversing a lower court ruling, the 5-2 decision came amid a nationwide opioid crisis, including abuse by pregnant women that can result in preterm labor, stillbirth and withdrawal symptoms for new babies. (12/28)
Kansas City Star: Insys Trial Looms With Implications For Kansas Lawsuits
Top executives of Insys Therapeutics, including billionaire founder John Kapoor, are facing charges that they bribed doctors to get them to prescribe their powerful fentanyl spray, Subsys. ... But the Kansas suits have largely been in a holding pattern as the parties await the results of the criminal trial in Boston, scheduled to begin Jan. 28. (Marso, 1/2)
