Forensics Talk

Doctor's Offices Can Help Stem Narcotic Painkiller Abuse

Medical News Today

    

Every day, thousands of doctors around the United States walk a tightrope stretched between their duty to help patients in pain -- and the risk of abetting illegal and life-destroying drug addiction and dependence, and losing their medical license for doing so.

They walk this tightrope every time a patient asks for a prescription for a powerful opioid narcotic painkiller, such as Oxycontin or Vicodin. These drugs have eased the pain of millions, but have also become lucrative street drugs that are used by millions of people not for pain control, but to get high.

Now, a new study from the University of Michigan and the Ohio State University shows how doctors and their office staff might be able to keep their balance.

Today at the meeting of the Society for General Internal Medicine, a U-M physician will present the results of an approach she designed and implemented while at OSU.

The results show how a busy multi-physician clinic was able to get a better handle on which patients were misusing opioid medications and steer dependent patients to treatment through a policy that logged and carefully screened all patients who were receiving the drugs for non-cancer pain. The clinic also required patients and doctors to sign an agreement about conditions for receiving such medicines. The initiative helped identify patients who were using other illicit drugs, which can interact dangerously with narcotic painkillers...More

Hospitalization Linked To Increased Mortality In Heart Failure Patients

Medical News Today

    

Patients with heart failure are at increased risk of death if they are hospitalized for worsening heart failure symptoms, according to new research from UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham). The findings, published this month in the Journal of Cardiac Failure, suggest that a new emphasis on avoiding the need to hospitalize heart failure patients is required in medicine.

"Our findings show that hospitalization due to worsening heart failure, often thought to be due to non-adherence to regimens of salt or fluid restriction, or prescribed medications, may also represent progression of disease," said Ali Ahmed, M.D., MPH, associate professor in the division of gerontology, geriatrics and palliative care medicine and director of UAB's Geriatric Heart Failure Clinic and the study's lead investigator. "New strategies are needed to better manage heart failure before the disease progresses to a point where hospitalization is required."

Hospitalization due to heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization among older adults, and with the aging of the baby boomers, the number of heart failure patients and heart failure hospitalizations are projected to double over the next couple of decades... More

Arizona Doctor Offers New Addiction Drug Treatment For Meth Addicts Showing More Than 60% Success Rate

Medical News Today

   

With Arizona facing a critical crisis of methamphetamine use, Dr. Gregory Ellison, Director of Advanced Medical    Center, has identified a very promising new addiction treatment option that shows high success rates and is performed on an out-patient (versus in-patient) basis in 10 hours over five sessions. As the only doctor in the state of Arizona licensed to administer the new PROMETA(R) treatment program, Ellison is encouraged with results of clinic trials which show more than a 60 percent success rate.

     In conjunction with the statewide television simulcast of Crystal Darkness on April 15th to raise awareness about meth, there is a mandate to    raise awareness about addiction treatment. Ellison's PROMETA(R) 30-day program targets the imbalances in the brain chemistry associated with substance dependence, cravings, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms and relapse with a three-prong treatment of medicine, nutrition and psychology. Patients receiving this treatment experience:

    --  Relief from cravings and anxiety

    --  Restoration of nutritional balance

    --  Improvement of mental capacity  Read More