drug addiction

Prompts to reduce opioid prescribing

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An interesting study with a potential technique to reduce opioid prescribing is published in Nature Communications by Doctor, J.N., Kelley, M.A., Goldstein, N.J. et al. titled A randomized trial looking at planning prompts to reduce opioid prescribing (vol.15, no. 263, 2024). The article suggests informing doctors about patients who died from overdoses, combined with specific guidance on safer prescribing practices, may be an effective way to reduce risky prescriptions of opioids and benzodiazepines. Despite efforts in the U.S. to reduce opioid addiction and related fatalities, it is believed too many opioids are still prescribed. Some evidence has shown that notifying doctors about an overdose death of a patient may be effective. Researchers from the University of Southern California investigated this approach by sending personalized letters to clinicians in Los Angeles County. Some received letters simply notifying them about a patient’s overdose death, while others received … Read more

Low-Dose Naltrexone as An Alternative to Opioids for Wisdom Teeth Removal

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Before on this site numerous posts have discussed how many feel dentists and oral surgeons prescribe (or in the past have prescribed) too many opioids for their patients to help manage pain of dental procedures like wisdom teeth removal, see for example the post Do Oral Surgeons Give Too Many Opioids for Wisdom Teeth Removal?. In recent years there have been investigations into alternatives to opioids for dental procedures and also for chronic pain management when opioids in the past were more regularly prescribed for as well. One such approach is to prescribe a combination of ibuprofen and acetaminophen as discussed in the articles New Research Being Conducted at Rutgers for Opioid Alternatives Could Lead to Less Potential Drug Abuse for those Having Wisdom Teeth Surgery and Reducing Opioids in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Recently, there have been articles and … Read more

Dentists Overprescribing Opioids to Adults in the U.S.

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In the past on this site, some studies have discussed how dentists and oral surgeons may be prescribing too many opioids to their patients. For example see the posts Important Studies on Opioid Prescribing: Implications for Dentistry, Do Oral Surgeons Give Too Many Opioids for Wisdom Teeth Removal? and Opioid Prescriptions From Dental Clinicians for Young Adults and Subsequent Opioid Use and Abuse. Now a new study has recently appeared in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine titled “Overprescribing of Opioids to Adults by Dentists in the U.S., 2011–2015”, written by Suda et al. (pp. 1−14, 2019 in press). The study found that between 25% and 50% of opioids prescribed to adults by dentists in the U.S. are overprescribed. This is important because dentists are responsible for prescribing 10% of all opioids to patients in the U.S. The authors feel that urgent … Read more