By Nora D. Volkow, M.D.Executive Director, National Institute on Drug Addiction Original Post April 20, 2020 Each day in 2018, an average of 185 people in the United States died from a drug overdose (1). In fact, recent declines in U.S. life expectancy are being attributed to direct and indirect effects of alcohol and drug …
Emergency Departments Can Help Prevent Opioid Overdoses
From the Blog of Dr. Nora Volkow Executive Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse Additional Writings by Steven Barto, B.S., Psych. Originally Posted at the NIDA Website on August 26, 2019 One of the biggest risk factors for overdose death from opioids is having had a previous overdose. Common sense and a growing body of …
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America’s Fentanyl Crisis
Every day 91 Americans fatally overdose on an opioid drug. It may be a prescription analgesic or heroin–4 to 8 percent of people who misuse painkillers transition to heroin–but increasingly it is likely to be heroin’s much more potent synthetic cousin fentanyl. In the space of only two years, fentanyl has tragically escalated the opioid …
Overdose Deaths In Susquehanna Valley, Pennsylvania
The following was published in The Sunday Item, April 3, 2016, Sunbury, Pennsylvania regarding the rash of overdose deaths in the Susquehanna Valley. Jan. 6, Female, 39, Shamokin, mixed-drug toxicity/prescriptions Jan. 10, Female, 45, Zerby Township, mixed-drug toxicity/prescriptions Feb. 4, Male, 27, New Columbia, heroin Feb. 5, Male, 63, Mount Carmel, mixed-drug toxicity/prescriptions Feb. 6, …
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Drug Overdose Deaths Hit Record Numbers
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that drug overdose deaths hit record numbers in 2014, with more than 47,000 deaths nationwide. CDC has outlined steps for stopping the overdose death epidemic. Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs Secretary Gary Tennis issued the following statement in response: Like the rest of the nation, …