Understanding the difference between physical dependence and opioid addiction can help you find the treatment that you need.
The Choices Emergency Response Team (CERT) and the Opioid Crisis Response Team (OCRT), both funded by the 2016 21st Century Cures Act and the State Opioid Response, partner clinicians with recovery staff and nurses to enhance access to and engagement with evidence-based substance use disorder treatment, particularly for opioid use disorder.
Opioid use in pregnancy has prompted new guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, aimed at improving care for women and newborns affected by their mothers’ drug use.
The number of affected women and infants has increased in recent years but they often don’t get effective treatment, and the pandemic may be worsening that problem, said Dr. Stephen Patrick, lead author of the academy report released Monday.
An addiction recovery center for pregnant women and new mothers built inside a renovated post office building in downtown Columbus has opened and received its first residents.
After several months of delays due to the pandemic, the Fresh Start Recovery Center, located at 703 Washington St., officially opened Oct. 5, and its first residents moved in the following day, said Wendy Haag, the facility’s program director.
The National Institutes of Health has announced a new initiative to fight opioid use disorder (OUD) in the U.S. The HEALing Communities Study will test a comprehensive prevention and treatment model aimed at communities hit hard by the opioid crisis.
The model includes evidence-based practices to lower deaths linked to opioid overdose. Researchers recently published the paper in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
Understandably, the coronavirus pandemic ranks as the nation’s top public health priority, with first claim on limited public funds and public attention. Yet more of both must be devoted to the public health catastrophe that dominated the headlines before the coronavirus hit early this year, and that has not disappeared since: opioid addiction.
“If we look at people who have struggled with substances, whether they’re identified as dependent or not, or if they’re somebody who may not want to stop using substances, they’re a person,” said Mary Jo McMillin, the Executive Director at USARA. “They’re a person who truly wants to feel better, to have their life be better.”
Education about the dangers of opioids is essential. As we await normalcy’s return, we need you — parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, friends, and the media – to take up this cause and flatten this curve.
The effects of COVID-19 are not limited to illness or death, but manifest in ways that impact even those who never test positive.
New and expectant mothers face unique challenges when seeking treatment for an opioid use disorder. On top of preparing for motherhood, expectant mothers often face barriers to accessing treatment, which typically involves taking safer opioids to reduce dependency over time. The approach is called medication assisted therapy, or MAT, and is a key component in most opioid treatment programs.