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Opioid Epidemic

The ASAM National Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder: 2020 Focused Update

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) developed this National Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder to provide information on evidence-based treatment of opioid use disorder. This guideline is an update and replacement of the 2015 ASAM National Practice Guideline for the Use of Medications in the Treatment of Addiction Involving Opioid Use.

Keywords 
Opioid opioid abuse addiction

Intranasal Naloxone for Opioid Overdose

Author/s: 
Jessica L Taylor, Karen E Lasser

In 2021, opioid overdose deaths exceeded 80 000 in the US.1 Naloxone, a competitive opioid receptor antagonist that reverses symptoms of opioid intoxication and overdose by displacing opioids from μ-opioid receptors, is a safe and effective medication for preventing opioid overdose death. Naloxone meets US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) criteria for approval without a prescription: its benefits outweigh risks, it treats a condition that can be identified by people in the community, it has a low potential for misuse, and it can be labeled to facilitate correct administration.

Keywords 
Emergency Medicine Substance Use addiction opioids public health Toxicology Naloxone

Living Systematic Review on Cannabis and Other Plant-Based Treatments for Chronic Pain

Author/s: 
McDonagh, M. S., Wagner, J., Ahmed, A. Y., Fu, R., Morasco, B., Kansagara, D., Chou, R.

In an effort to address the opioid epidemic, a prominent goal of current research is to identify alternative treatments with equal or better benefits for pain while avoiding potential unintended consequences that could result in harms.

This 'living' systematic review assesses the effectiveness and harms of cannabis and other plant-based treatments for chronic pain conditions. For the purposes of this review, plant-based compounds (PBCs) included are those that are similar to opioids in effect and that have the potential for addiction, misuse, and serious adverse effects; other PBCs such as herbal treatments are not included. The intended audience includes policy and decision makers, funders and researchers of treatments for chronic pain, and clinicians who treat chronic pain.

The report will be updated on a quarterly basis.

Keywords 
Policy Goals chronic pain cannabis use opiod misuse

The opioid crisis: a contextual, social-ecological framework

Author/s: 
Jalali, Mohammad S., Botticelli, Michael, Hwang, Rachael C., Koh, Howard K., McHugh, R. Kathryn

The prevalence of opioid use and misuse has provoked a staggering number of deaths over the past two and a half decades. Much attention has focused on individual risks according to various characteristics and experiences. However, broader social and contextual domains are also essential contributors to the opioid crisis such as interpersonal relationships and the conditions of the community and society that people live in. Despite efforts to tackle the issue, the rates of opioid misuse and non-fatal and fatal overdose remain high. Many call for a broad public health approach, but articulation of what such a strategy could entail has not been fully realised. In order to improve the awareness surrounding opioid misuse, we developed a social-ecological framework that helps conceptualise the multivariable risk factors of opioid misuse and facilitates reviewing them in individual, interpersonal, communal and societal levels. Our framework illustrates the multi-layer complexity of the opioid crisis that more completely captures the crisis as a multidimensional issue requiring a broader and integrated approach to prevention and treatment.

Keywords 
Opioid Use Disorder opioids social-ecological framework RISEOK Opioid Epidemic

Mind-Body Therapies for Opioid-Treated Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Author/s: 
Garland, Eric L., Brintz, Carrie E., Hanley, Adam W., Roseen, Eric J., Atchley, Rachel M., Gaylord, Susan A., Faurot, Keturah R., Yaffe, Joanne, Fiander, Michelle, Keefe, Francis J.

Importance: Mind-body therapies (MBTs) are emerging as potential tools for addressing the opioid crisis. Knowing whether mind-body therapies may benefit patients treated with opioids for acute, procedural, and chronic pain conditions may be useful for prescribers, payers, policy makers, and patients.

Objective: To evaluate the association of MBTs with pain and opioid dose reduction in a diverse adult population with clinical pain.

Data sources: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, the MEDLINE, Embase, Emcare, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for English-language randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews from date of inception to March 2018. Search logic included (pain OR analgesia OR opioids) AND mind-body therapies. The gray literature, ClinicalTrials.gov, and relevant bibliographies were also searched.

Study selection: Randomized clinical trials that evaluated the use of MBTs for symptom management in adults also prescribed opioids for clinical pain.

Data extraction and synthesis: Independent reviewers screened citations, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. Meta-analyses were conducted using standardized mean differences in pain and opioid dose to obtain aggregate estimates of effect size with 95% CIs.

Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome was pain intensity. The secondary outcomes were opioid dose, opioid misuse, opioid craving, disability, or function.

Results: Of 4212 citations reviewed, 60 reports with 6404 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, MBTs were associated with pain reduction (Cohen d = -0.51; 95% CI, -0.76 to -0.26) and reduced opioid dose (Cohen d = -0.26; 95% CI, -0.44 to -0.08). Studies tested meditation (n = 5), hypnosis (n = 25), relaxation (n = 14), guided imagery (n = 7), therapeutic suggestion (n = 6), and cognitive behavioral therapy (n = 7) interventions. Moderate to large effect size improvements in pain outcomes were found for meditation (Cohen d = -0.70), hypnosis (Cohen d = -0.54), suggestion (Cohen d = -0.68), and cognitive behavioral therapy (Cohen d = -0.43) but not for other MBTs. Although most meditation (n = 4 [80%]), cognitive-behavioral therapy (n = 4 [57%]), and hypnosis (n = 12 [63%]) studies found improved opioid-related outcomes, fewer studies of suggestion, guided imagery, and relaxation reported such improvements. Most MBT studies used active or placebo controls and were judged to be at low risk of bias.

Conclusions and relevance: The findings suggest that MBTs are associated with moderate improvements in pain and small reductions in opioid dose and may be associated with therapeutic benefits for opioid-related problems, such as opioid craving and misuse. Future studies should carefully quantify opioid dosing variables to determine the association of mind-body therapies with opioid-related outcomes.

Keywords 
Mind-Body Therapies meditation hypnosis cognitive behavioral therapy pain reduction opioids Opioid Epidemic
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