Direct Relief’s Post

#PfizerProud of our work with Direct Relief to help expand access to opioid overdose reversal medication. Learn more about our work in a video that recently won five Telly Awards! 

💥I recently watched on Netflix's Painkiller, a six-part drama examining a certain family's complicity in the creation and growth of the opioid epidemic, which opens with the bereaved parent of a young person who overdosed on pain medication OxyContin. 🔹It's thought provoking and heartbreaking to say the least. 🚀The opioid overdose crisis is a serious and complex challenge facing the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has taken significant steps to decrease unnecessary exposure to opioids, prevent new cases of opioid use disorder (OUD), and support the treatment of people with OUD. 🔹 It's really good to see The Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) is committed to helping to end this national crisis. This draft guidance provides recommendations for the design of pivotal clinical studies for devices intended to treat OUD and used to support marketing submissions. These recommendations are applicable to the design and development of clinical studies to provide a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness for a device intended to treat OUD. #opioidcrisis #CDRH #FDA #symmetrictraining

If you’ve known the Opioid Crisis is important, but understanding it seemed too big to tackle, I've started a three part (concise!) series, beginning with “WHY has opioid use become a crisis in the U.S.?” Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gjrnuqYh

At the 2024 Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) meeting, Alex Kresovich highlighted our team's groundbreaking work on opioid-related content on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. 🔍Our research offers pivotal insights into how these platforms influence public opinion and dialogue around the opioid crisis. Using CrowdTangle, we collected data from Facebook and Instagram posts related to the opioid epidemic in the US, spanning from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. We focused on the top 0.5% of posts with the highest engagement, analyzing 1,267 key posts. Key Findings: 🚓 Law enforcement narratives dominated the conversation, with frequent mentions of fentanyl and heroin. 💔 Discussions on opioid treatments and harm reduction were notably sparse. ⚖️ Partisan differences were evident: right-leaning accounts blamed drug dealers and government policies, often using sensationalist language. 💬 Celebrity overdose news, though rare, generated high engagement. 📰 Local news posts focused heavily on criminality and police action, often mirroring police press releases. 📊 Our research reveals a shift towards a criminal justice lens in public discourse around the opioid crisis. Right-leaning narratives are more prevalent, with limited criticism of pharmaceutical companies or healthcare providers. The emphasis on celebrity overdoses and police narratives highlights significant societal influences on public perception. Opportunities Ahead: 💡Public health entities can leverage these insights to promote evidence-based information and foster constructive conversations. 🤝By collaborating with influential social media accounts and law enforcement, we can help reshape the narrative and tackle the opioid crisis more effectively. #OpioidCrisis #PublicHealth #SocialMediaResearch #JCOIN2024 #EvidenceBasedPolicy #HealthCommunication

#CAADPE recently published an Op-Ed in the San Francisco Chronicle: "A New Overdose Reversal Treatment Could Save Lives. Why Isn’t California Taking Advantage?" 🔍 With the opioid crisis escalating, it's crucial that California develop an "Every tool in the toolbox" approach to care. This piece sheds light on life-saving overdose reversal treatments and the urgent need for wider adoption. 👉 Read the full Op-Ed: https://lnkd.in/g7J_ETUU

How Marketing Fueled The Opioid Overdose Crisis And What We Can Learn From It <p>Given the link established across studies between marketing practices and the opioid overdose crisis, a few strategic steps can form a path forward for clinicians and policymakers.</p> <p>The post <a href="https://lnkd.in/gBpVdCUR">How Marketing Fueled The Opioid Overdose Crisis And What We Can Learn From It</a> appeared first on <a href="https://abovethelaw.com/">Above the Law</a>.</p> https://lnkd.in/gBpVdCUR

Comment submitted to Pain News Network: https://lnkd.in/eZGj56vE It is the kind of deliberate fraud described in this excellent article, that prompted me to end my recent definitive paper published by the European Society of Medicine, with the following text: "Taken in combination, these factors may warrant the repudiation of both CDC-2016 and CDC-2022, and withdrawal of CDC from policy making roles in the practice of pain medicine." The paper may be found at https://lnkd.in/emd-V24m It has been downloaded 320 times in the first 4 days since publication. Feel free to print it out and share it with your legislators and local newsroom editors of major media. Likewise, I will disseminate this article in my networks. We are a Nation in Pain and We Will Not be Silenced!

Every time I get the opportunity, I advocate a culture change in acute care where we encourage admission to hospital for those who are suffering and want help. Fentanyl related opioid use disorder and withdrawal from fentanyl is a serious health issue--a leading cause of death in young Canadians. For many reasons, these patients should be admitted to an acute care hospital if interested in treatment. I am going to focus on the three most important medical reasons, recognizing there are many other reasons patients could benefit from hospitalization: 1. The toxic drug supply Transitioning to opioid agonist therapy is hard enough with fentanyl in isolation, but many patients are also suffering through potentially life-threatening concurrent withdrawal syndromes i.e. benzodiazepine withdrawal. 2. Risk for precipitated withdrawal The risk with buprenorphine induction is higher in those using fentanyl due to its potency and lipophilicity. It can be eliminated or minimized if receiving appropriate expert care in an acute care hospital. 3. The high tolerance in those using fentanyl. We are increasingly realizing that conventional buprenorphine inductions, based on data that predate the fentanyl era, do not work in this population. This is likely because these protocols put individuals at high risk for precipitated withdrawal and do not come close to meeting the opioid agonism needs for individuals with such profound tolerance. Individuals using illicit fentanyl are often using as much as 1 gram of fentanyl per day or even more! When I work in the emergency department setting, I may use 50-100 MICROgrams of fentanyl to treat severe acute pain or as part of a procedural sedation strategy. The opioid tolerance in this population is unbelievable. Hybrid micro- into macro-dosing inductions are likely the most effective induction method in this population. The former minimizes the risk of precipitated withdrawal. The latter ensures we provide enough opioid agonism to actually treat withdrawal. Would you say there is a maximum dose of diazepam for acute alcohol withdrawal? Or a maximum dose of propofol to facilitate a painful procedure? Buprenorphine should be titrated accordingly. The maximum dose is when the patient tells you doses are no longer treating their opioid withdrawal symptoms. If you give buprenorphine and the patient does not feel better, this also provides clinical information that they very well could be withdrawing from something else. Given all of this, in what world does it make sense to hand those suffering a piece of paper to follow-up with some outpatient clinic? We should be admitting these patient when they want help! It is a leading cause of death! Rob Smith Jacklyn Pearce (she/her) Daniel Pepe

Alert! After reviewing some of the recent research, I feel that my colleagues and I need to increase our awareness: ➼ The FDA warned about serious mental health side effects of Singulair, including reports of completed suicides and suicide attempts linked to the drug. ➼ There have been allegations that Merck downplayed early evidence of the drug's impact on the brain, and the company now faces lawsuits related to this issue. ➼ The FDA's handling of Singulair has been criticized for systemic gaps in addressing troubling side effects and for not requiring doctors to be educated about the drug's side effects. This does not mean that some people cannot take this medication safely, but we should all be watching out for this unacceptable side effect. #healthcare #asthma #warning #fda #medicine #medication #health #singulair #suicide #depression #sideeffects

#Montelukast having psychiatric side effects also points to the research that how immune system , allergies and inflammation is involved in depression. On the hand I have also seen anti allergic medicine such as hydroxyzine, cetirizine, and loratadine helpful in anxiety and I'm few rare cases panic attack induced by inflammation from pollen. #seasonal #asthma #inflammation #depression "It  is a highly selective leukotriene receptor antagonist that binds with high affinity to the cysteinyl leukotriene receptor for leukotrienes D4 and E4. These leukotrienes are excreted by various cells, such as mast cells, and are involved in the inflammatory process that may cause asthma and allergic rhinitis signs and symptoms. Leukotriene receptors are found in airway cells, such as macrophages and smooth muscle cells. When bound to leukotriene receptors, montelukast inhibits leukotriene physiologic effects (such as airway edema, smooth muscle contraction, and impairment of normal cellular activity) without exhibiting any agonist activity. In asthmatics, low doses of montelukast (5 mg) induce a significant inhibition of bronchoconstriction caused by leukotriene D4. "