On May 10, the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force, voted on its final recommendations and published the Report on Pain Management Best Practices: Updates, Gaps, Inconsistencies, and Recommendations,  which emphasize the importance of providing balanced, individualized, patient-centered pain management to ensure better clinical outcomes for pain that improve quality of life and functionality for patients. […]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the agency is requiring a new boxed warning – the agency’s most prominent warning – on certain prescription insomnia drugs to better ensure patients and their health care professionals have the information they need when considering use of these medicines.  The boxed warning follows several reports of rare, […]

Opioid prescriptions were written at nearly 57 million visits to doctors’ offices between 2005 and 2015 according to a study published in Pediatrics. The study found the drugs are often prescribed to teenagers and young adults for tooth and back pain. HealthDay.

Safe Kids Worldwide, recently released the research report, Medicine Safety: A Key Part of Child-Proofing Your Home. This new report reviews trends in medicine poisoning for children and reveals findings from recent focus groups with parents of children under age 6, which provide insights into why, when most parents know they need to store medicine […]

SAMHSA – This webinar features discussion among opioid misuse health literacy experts about effective prevention strategies, approaches, and resources that can advance an understanding and a dialogue between older patients and their health care providers about opioid use. Presenters include prevention leaders from SAMHSA, the National Council on Aging, United Hospital Fund, and the Johns […]

From 2010 to 2015, the rate of opioid-related hospital stays increased between 27 and 39 percent among patients age 65 and older, depending on the age group. Non–opioid-related hospital stays decreased 17 percent for patients age 65 and older during the same period. (HCUP Statistical Brief #244 – updated September 2018) Healthcare Cost and Utilization […]

“The Real-World Medicare Costs of Alzheimer Disease: Considerations for Policy and Care” findings published in the July issue of Journal of Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy, demonstrate the importance of better diagnosis, treatment, and care of individuals with Alzheimer’s, which could lead to more favorable patient outcomes and improved costs for state Medicaid programs and caregivers.

HealthDay – Most people struggling with an opioid addiction do not have access to medications that could help them, including methadone, buprenorphine and extended-release naltrexone, according to a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The study found only 6% of treatment facilities offered all three of the drugs in 2016, while […]

Many of the most frequently prescribed oral medications in the U.S. contain at least one ingredient that could cause an adverse reaction, new research shows. The study, reported in Science Translational Medicine, looked at more than 42,000 oral medications and identified more than three dozen inactive ingredients that have been described in medical literature to cause […]

USA Today – Google is partnering with the DEA, HHS, CVS, Walgreens and state governments to display local drug disposal locations in Google Maps. By entering searches such as “drug drop off near me” or “medication disposal near me,” consumers will be able to find permanent disposal spots at local pharmacies, hospitals or government buildings […]