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Tag: opioid addiction

  • Mobile Recovery Clinic Provides Vivitrol To Those With Opioid Addiction

    Mobile Recovery Clinic Provides Vivitrol To Those With Opioid Addiction

    The clinic is the brainchild of a registered nurse who has been sober for 13 years. 

    For many who are living with addiction, it can be difficult to get access to help, and in some rural areas, it can require extensive traveling. Now, a mobile recovery clinic travels to these people who need help.

    As CNN reports, the company behind the roving clinic—Positive Recovery Solutions—has been traveling throughout Pennsylvania in an RV, helping and treating people suffering from opioid addiction. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, overdose deaths in Pennsylvania have gone up 65% from 2015 and 2017.

    In 2017 alone, there were 5,456 overdose deaths in the state, or 43 overdoses for every 100,000 people.

    Positive Recovery Solutions was created by a woman named Amanda Cope, who is recovering from alcoholism. She told CNN, “I ended up being 27 years old, drinking two fifths of vodka a day to not be sick.”

    Cope hit bottom when she had a blackout seizure in a bar, and she finally went into rehab at the age of 28. “Once I got there, I realized how sick I was,” she continues. “My denial was thick.”

    Having the right nurse taking care of her made all the difference. “That was the first time that somebody saw me for what I was and showed me compassion and empathy… I said, ‘I’m going to be that for someone one day.’”

    Cope is now a registered nurse herself, and has been sober for 13 years. She founded Positive Recovery Solutions with her cousins, who also battled opioid addiction.

    Cope was aware that some of her patients had to travel far to get help, which is one of the reasons why she started the company.

    Patients make their way to Positive Recovery Solutions through referrals, and they use Vivitrol in their treatment program. Cope feels that the recovery process “comes from the behavioral health piece. The medication is meant, by our philosophy, to be a safety net… This safety net will keep this patient craving-free while they do the work of recovery, which is developing healthy coping mechanisms, changing behavior patterns and changing people, places and things.”

    Stuart Masula, who was addicted to painkillers and got clean with the help of Vivitrol, is now driving for Positive Recovery Solutions.

    As he told CNN, “I literally probably have the best job you could ever have. I get to go to work and see people who are trying to change their lives every single day for the better.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Does Restricting Prescription Opioids Save Lives In The Long Term?

    Does Restricting Prescription Opioids Save Lives In The Long Term?

    A new study found that over a five- to 10-year period, policies limiting the prescription of opioids would initially increase deaths as many individuals turn to heroin or fentanyl.

    Combating the opioid epidemic is complicated for a number of reasons—one of which, according to new research, is that cutting back on prescriptions may cause more deaths in the short-term, despite saving them in the long-term.

    This information comes from a simulation study recently published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study determined that over a five- to 10-year period, policies limiting the prescription of opioids would initially increase deaths as individuals may turn to heroin or fentanyl.

    The simulation study was led by Stanford University researchers Allison Pitt, Keith Humphreys and Margaret Brandeau.

    “This doesn’t mean these policies should not be considered,” said Humphreys, who was a former senior policy adviser at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) during the Obama administration. “Over longer periods, they will reduce deaths by reducing the number of people who initiate prescription opioids.”

    Austin Frakt, director of the Partnered Evidence-Based Policy Resource Center at the VA Boston Healthcare System, wrote in a New York Times opinion piece that restrictions on prescribing opioids seem to be a logical response to curbing the crisis. As many as 80% of heroin users in the U.S. are estimated to have previously used prescription opioids.

    However, the idea of limiting prescriptions becomes more complicated when individuals who are truly in need of the medications for pain management are taken into account. 

    It’s a situation in which there has to be a trade-off of some sort, according to Frakt.

    “This is the fundamental trade-off opioids present, with which we have been battling for decades,” Frakt writes. “As the pendulum swung further toward treating pain, opioid-related deaths ballooned. Now to stem the deaths, it is swinging back, challenging us to treat pain in other ways.”

    According to the researchers of the simulation study, there is no one policy that would solve the crisis or even make a significant difference. The policy that could be most effective, according to the researchers, is increasing access to naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote. Even so, this would likely only bring the deaths down about 4% over the next decade. 

    “Expanding access to naloxone is inexpensive and saves lives,” Pitt said. “That’s an attractive combination, but we should be realistic that it will only save a small percentage of opioid deaths.” 

    As such, researchers note that combining policies such as increasing naloxone access, expanding treatment and more needle exchanges could help to save twice that number of lives. 

    “Policy interventions can prevent many deaths, as well as the other destruction that opioids bring to individuals, families and communities,” Frakt concludes. “But prescription opioids are neither all bad nor all good. Policies that sound sensible—potentially helping many people—could also cause a lot of damage, particularly in the short run.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Nurses Speak About Risk For Opioid Addiction

    Nurses Speak About Risk For Opioid Addiction

    One nurse in recovery says that easy access to medications heightens the risk of addiction among people in her occupation.

    With long hours, stressful shifts and easy access to prescription medications, nurses are at high risk of opioid addiction, according to people who work in the industry. 

    According to a recent report by Fox13 Memphis, 114 nurses lost their licenses (or had them suspended) because of addiction issues over the course of one year in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. 

    “I would say 20 to 25 percent of nurses probably have an addiction problem,” said Deena Coleman, a nurse who has been in recovery for 10 years, and now helps other nurses connect with treatment. “I don’t know, 20 to 25 percent are seeking treatment. But it would be my guess.”

    Coleman said that with medications everywhere, it’s simple for nurses to cross the line. 

    “We are very bright people. We can figure out how to get what we want. And I think nurses see things lying around. They see how things go,” she said. “And it takes them a very short time to say, ‘Okay, that would be easy to pick up and put in my pocket.’”

    One nurse who spoke with Fox using the pseudonym “Sophie” said that a doctor she worked with got her started using opioids recreationally. Soon she was using them to get through her shifts. 

    “Eventually I took narcotics from work and was caught. And was charged with obtaining narcotic by fraud,” she said. 

    She said that she knows her drug abuse affected the patients that she was caring for. “I would be foolish to say no it didn’t. Yes, it did. It had to have. There was no way that I could use opioids,” she said.

    In Mississippi, nurses need to document a year of sobriety—proven by drug tests—in order to be able to regain their license. 

    “They make it difficult for you to get your license back. Yes, it is fair. You are taking care of people,” said Sophie. Now six years sober, she is hoping to return to nursing. “There is absolutely hope,” she said. 

    In Massachusetts, the Board of Registration in Nursing runs a Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program for nurses who are coping with addiction. Nurses who complete the program can keep their licenses after they complete the course. 

    David Kelly, a former registered nurse who became addicted to opioids said that he was lucky to be in a state with such a program. However, he said that opioid addiction needs to be talked about more openly among healthcare professionals. 

    “We have great recovery programs in this state, but our outreach needs to improve,” he said during a talk at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston in 2017.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Small Town Tackles Opioid Crisis With Treatment, Compassion

    Small Town Tackles Opioid Crisis With Treatment, Compassion

    Despite its small size, Little Falls has taken control of their drug epidemic in by allocating $1.4 million in grants in the past five years.

    As a 25-year-old in Little Falls, Minnesota, Monica Rudolph would steal money from her parent’s savings, little by little, so she could support her heroin use. 

    Eventually, according to BuzzFeed News, the money was gone. Monica’s parents discovered the empty box in their home, and that’s when her mother began calling treatment centers. But she kept hitting head ends — treatment centers saying they were closed for the weekend, or that they could not take Monica for a few weeks. 

    That’s when her mother decided to call the local hospital—and it worked. Monica was connected with a substance abuse counselor and was told to come in the next day to begin treatment.  

    “My hometown of 8,000 people was the one place in the state that picked up the phone,” Monica said. “Think of all the people like me who don’t have that hometown.”

    Despite its small size, Little Falls has taken control of their drug epidemic in by allocating $1.4 million in grants in the past five years, BuzzFeed News reports. The money has been spent on limiting refills, increasing the access to medications to treat substance use disorder, putting treatment ahead of jail and taking basic public health measures. 

    The efforts paid off. BuzzFeed News reports that visits to the ER for painkillers—once the top reason for visits—isn’t even in the top 20 now. The hospital now has 100 patients on substance use disorder medications and has helped 626 people taper off opioids. 

    “One thing led to another,” Kurt DeVine, one of Monica’s doctors, told BuzzFeed News. “We realized we had to do a lot of things we weren’t doing, and that we had to do them together, or it wasn’t going to work.”

    Now, DeVine and his colleague, Heather Bell, lead online seminars about how Little Falls has tackled the opioid crisis. They help towns to think bigger than just one thing.

    “They get Narcan, or they get one little project and they think that is going to fix it,” DeVine tells BuzzFeed News. “There is no easy answer. It is a lot of work. If we were doing only one thing, just Narcan, our problem would be as bad as anywhere else. You have to do it all.”

    In Little Falls specifically, the hospital formed a “Care Team,” made up of a social worker, a nurse, two doctors, and a pharmacist. The team’s focus is to help patients like Monica. They have also changed their thinking from treating substance use disorder as a crime to considering it a disease. 

    “If you find a person’s urine has a bunch of meth and not their pain meds, you make the assumption they are selling their pain meds to get meth,” Bell told BuzzFeed News. “But we don’t kick them out of our clinic. We say, ‘OK, what is going on? Do you need help?’ Then we get them into treatment.”

    Now, Monica is taking the opportunity to give back to the community that helped her recover. Through training in a federal program, she will now serve as the hospital’s first “peer” counselor. 

    “My life has come full circle,” she told BuzzFeed News. “I’m really excited to give something back.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Is Asthma More Common In People With Chronic Opioid Dependence?

    Is Asthma More Common In People With Chronic Opioid Dependence?

    A new study examined whether asthma rates are higher in those with chronic opioid dependence.

    People with chronic opioid dependence experience asthma at nearly double the rate of the general population, according to a new study. 

    The study, published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, examined asthma rates among chronic opioid users in a New York City hospital. Researchers found that among people who were opioid-dependent, the asthma rate was 17.2%, compared to 8.3% in the general population.

    The results confirmed what researchers expected to see, study author Dr. Roshni Naik said in a press release. 

    “While some studies have shown that opioid medication can help with cough and shortness of breath in heart disease and advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, other studies have shown that opioids such as heroin worsen asthma. We hypothesized that there is higher prevalence of asthma among patients with opioid dependence who are addicted or dependent on prescription painkillers or heroin,” Naik said. 

    How opioids affect breathing depends on which opioids a person is using. 

    “The effects of opioid use on respiratory conditions are mixed—while licit opiates help with cough and the dyspnea of heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, illicit opiates may exacerbate asthma,” study authors wrote. 

    Naik explained in the press release how opioids can affect a person’s breathing. “Opioid drugs such as morphine can directly activate the release of a substance called histamine from cells, specifically mast cells, in our body. Histamine is involved in allergic reactions and contributes to itching, hives and swelling. Since more than half of asthma is allergic in nature, we postulated that opioids may be linked to asthma.” 

    Naik said that doctors and patients need to openly discuss opioid use (whether legal or illegal) and symptoms of asthma in order to make a comprehensive care plan.  

    “There is no current guideline on how to manage asthmatics on opioid medications. However, patients with severe asthma should follow up regularly with their primary care doctor or see an asthma specialist to maintain control of their asthma. Patients who are addicted to opioids should seek a healthcare provider in combating their addiction.”

    Researchers also found that there were gender-based differences in how opioid use affected asthma. In general, women experienced asthma at higher rates, with the condition affecting 9.7% of women and just 6.9% of men in the general population.

    Among people who are opioid-dependent, asthma affected 25% of females and 13.9% of males. This shows that women are more likely than men to have their breathing affected by opioid use.

    “This suggests that women may also be disproportionately affected with asthma in the setting of opioid dependence,” researchers wrote.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Recovery Housing Program For Rural Areas Launched By USDA, HHS

    Recovery Housing Program For Rural Areas Launched By USDA, HHS

    “The opioid crisis has hit rural communities hard, and we need to leverage all possible partnerships to support these communities,” said an HHS official.

    A new federal program will allow nonprofit organizations to purchase homes in rural communities for use as transitional housing for individuals in recovery from substance use disorder.

    The initiative is a joint effort between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and aims to address the national opioid crisis by providing greater access and support to rural areas, which have shouldered a substantial portion of the epidemic’s overdose and death tolls.

    USDA Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development, Anne Hazlett, said in a press release that the program is part of President Donald Trump’s policy to address opioid dependency, which he declared a national public health emergency in late 2017.

    Through coordinated efforts between the USDA’s Rural Development and HHS’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), non-profit organizations will be able to purchase USDA’s Real Estate Owned (REO) single-family housing properties in rural communities at a discounted price for use as housing, treatment, job training and other services for individuals in recovery for substance abuse issues.

    The initiative extends the two organizations’ collaborative efforts, which were launched in 2018, when SAMHSA supplemented USDA Cooperative Extension grants to help communities in the fight against opioid abuse.

    “We know that the opioid crisis has hit rural communities hard, and we need to leverage all possible partnerships to support these communities,” said Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, HHS Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use. “Housing plays a vital part in the recovery process for those living with opioid use disorders.”

    The opioid crisis has cut a particularly devastating path through rural communities in America. As the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) noted, only 20% of the U.S population lives in areas designated as rural communities, but the rate of opioid-related overdose deaths in such locations is 45% higher than in metro counties.

    Studies have found that the rate of babies born with opioid withdrawal symptoms and teens who use opioids is much higher in rural communities.

    Adding to the problem is a lack of health care facilities—83 rural hospitals have closed since 2010—and access to mental health and substance treatment facilities. According to the NRHA, in 55% of all American counties, most of which are considered rural, there are no psychologists, psychiatrists or social workers.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Inside Elizabeth Warren's Plan To Address The Opioid Epidemic

    Inside Elizabeth Warren's Plan To Address The Opioid Epidemic

    Warren is one of the few 2020 presidential candidates to have discussed a plan to confront the opioid epidemic.

    As more names are being thrown into the hat for the 2020 presidential race, only one has spoken up about her plans to address the opioid epidemic.

    Elizabeth Warren has made some strides to combat the opioid crisis during her time as a U.S. Senator, according to Vox, and plans to continue to do so during her run for presidency.

    In her time in Congress, she has made a push for additional research into alternatives to opioids. She has also voiced her opinions about President Donald Trump’s response to the epidemic, calling it “pathetic.” 

    In 2018, Warren and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) introduced the Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act to Congress. If put into play, the bill would spread $100 billion to various states and organizations to fight the crisis over a 10-year period.  

    “Our communities are on the front lines of the epidemic, and they’re working hard to fight back,” Warren tells Vox. “But they can’t do it alone. They can’t keep nibbling around the edges.”

    Warren is one of the few 2020 presidential candidates to have discussed a plan to confront the opioid epidemic. This could be because her state of Massachusetts has been hit particularly hard by the crisis with its drug overdose deaths at 31.8 per 100,000 in 2017, compared to the national average of 21.7.

    The CARE Act, according to some experts, is one of the only plans presented with potential to make a difference in the epidemic. Keith Humphreys, a drug policy expert at Stanford University, tells Vox that Warren’s bill “is the only one that really grasps the nettle of how big the problem is.” 

    “Whatever else people might say about it, this is the first thing that really recognizes that [the opioid crisis] is a massive public health problem, like AIDS, and is not going to be solved by a tweak here, a tweak there,” he adds.

    The $100 billion involved in the CARE Act would be used in various ways, according to Vox. Some would be given to local government and nonprofits and some would be spread to numerous states, territories and tribal governments.

    This could be determined by overdose levels in certain areas, but some funding would also be given through a competitive grant process. Remaining funding would be dedicated to treatment, research, training and more access to overdose antidote naloxone. 

    Despite the support of some experts, Warren and Cumming’s bill has not made great progress in Congress. In the House, according to Vox, it received only 81 cosponsors, and in the Senate, it got none. Still, the two plan to reintroduce the bill in coming months. 

    Warren hasn’t hesitated to point out President Trump’s failure to deliver on his promises. In 2016, Trump said he would “spend the money” to confront the opioid epidemic. 

    “The Trump administration has treated this crisis like a photo op,” Warren tells Vox. “They talk a good game and produce nothing.”

    Although the CARE Act likely would not be able to address the entire epidemic on its own, it would be a start, Warren says.

    “Resources make a difference,” Warren tells Vox. “Not strong words. Not photo ops. But real money. Without real resources, the opioid crisis will continue to grow.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Opioid Crisis Activists "Die In" At Guggenheim Over Sackler Family Ties

    Opioid Crisis Activists "Die In" At Guggenheim Over Sackler Family Ties

    After the Guggenheim, protesters walked two blocks to the Metropolitan Museum, which has a wing named after the Sackler family. 

    Protesters dropped fake prescriptions from balconies, handed out empty pill bottles and laid down as if they were dead at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City to call attention to the opioid epidemic and call for the museum and others like it to stop acknowledging the billionaire philanthropists of the Sackler family, members of which founded the company that would become Purdue Pharma, the manufacturers of OxyContin. 

    “I want the Guggenheim and others publicly to disavow themselves from the Sacklers and refuse future funding from them, and I want them to take down the Sackler name from the museums,” Nan Goldin, who organized the protest, told The Guardian.

    Goldin, a photographer who art displayed in the Guggenheim, has been an outspoken critic of the Sackler family after she nearly died of an opioid overdose, following an addiction that she says started when she was prescribed OxyContin, a pill produced by Purdue Pharma. 

    The Sackler family has its name on the Guggenheim and other museums and institutes for the arts. Since the opioid epidemic — and Purdue’s misleading advertising claims — have been in the spotlight more, some have called on these institutions to distance themselves from the family.

    “We’re here to call out the Sackler family. By failing to disavow them now, by refusing to take down their names, the museums are complicit in the opioids crisis.”

    Distributing fake prescriptions from the balconies was meant to call attention to comments made by one member of the Sackler family, claiming that the launch of OxyContin would “followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition,” said Goldin. 

    According to The New Yorker, the fake scripts were for 80 milligrams of OxyContin to be taken 24 times a day. They also contained a quote: “If OxyContin is uncontrolled, it is highly likely that it will eventually be abused. . . . How substantially would it improve our sales?” The words were pulled from court filling in Massachusetts, where Purdue is being sued for its prescribing practices. 

    After the Guggenheim, protesters walked two blocks to the Metropolitan Museum, which has a wing named after the Sackler family. 

    Visitors to the Guggenheim were initially confused, but a few who spoke to The Guardian said that the protest resonated with them. 

    “It reminded me of stories of protesters laying down in Wall Street during the Aids epidemic. These institutions all have dirty hands,” said Alex Viteri.

    Another man was visiting from New Hampshire, one of the states hardest hit by the opioid epidemic. The man said that his brother-in-law became hooked on opioids after being prescribed OxyContin. Like many people, the brother-in-law progressed to illicit opioids and died of a drug overdose. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Young People With Opioid Addiction Face Barriers To Treatment

    Young People With Opioid Addiction Face Barriers To Treatment

    Access to medication-assisted treatment is a major issue for young adults with opioid addiction.

    Opioid use among minors has drastically increased since the 1990s—parallel to adult use—yet young people with opioid addiction are largely without access to proper treatment.

    Yale University published a study revealing that nearly 9,000 minors (20 years old and under) in the U.S. died from prescription and illicit opioid poisonings between 1999 and 2016. The related mortality rate increased almost 270% during that same time period, and were mostly unintentional overdoses of kids ages 15 to 19.

    The youth in the study were addicted to and dying from the same opioids as adults, including fentanyl, the deadly drug that is often mixed in with other opioids.

    The National Institute on Drug Abuse writes that research shows that when treating opioid addiction, medication should be the first line of treatment, in tandem with behavioral therapy or counseling. The accepted medications to treat opioid addiction are buprenorphine, naltrexone and methadone.

    Lindsey Vuolo, associate director of health law and policy at the Center on Addiction, assured US News & World Report that these medications work.

    “Overall, approximately 50% of patients who receive medications for opioid addiction are successfully treated, while less than 10% of patients are successfully treated without these medications,” she said. Yet many rehabs do not offer any medication-assisted treatment.

    Adolescents with opioid addiction have an even more difficult road than adults in becoming aware of and accessing medication-assisted treatment.

    Dr. Scott Hadland, a pediatrician, assistant professor at Boston University and researcher at Boston Medical Center’s Grayken Center for Addiction, spoke with US News about the results of his study on opioid treatment and youth.

    Hadland and others looked at close to 5,000 Medicaid-enrolled young people between the ages of 13 and 22 with a diagnosed opioid use disorder in 2014 and 2015. The results were clear: less than a quarter received medication for their treatment within three months of being diagnosed, with most of the youths receiving only behavioral health services. A mere 5% of those under age 18 received timely treatment with medication. 

    Dr. Sharon Levy, director of the Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, was the lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2016 recommendations that called for “increasing resources to improve access to medication-assisted treatment of opioid-addicted adolescents and young adults.”

    The recommendations urged pediatricians to consider offering medication as treatment for young patients with severe opioid use disorders. Levy says that negative perceptions about medicated-assisted recovery (that the person is replacing one addiction with another) are outdated and the benefits of the medications outweigh any associated risks.

    “Policies, attitudes, and messages that serve to prevent patients from accessing a medication that can effectively treat a life-threatening condition may be harmful to adolescent health,” her AAP article states.

    Naltrexone is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for patients age 18 and older, and buprenorphine is approved for patients 16 and older.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Opioid Use May Be Tied To Intestinal Disorder In Newborns

    Opioid Use May Be Tied To Intestinal Disorder In Newborns

    A new report explores the connection between opioid use and the intestinal birth defect.

    Infants whose mothers use opioids during pregnancy are at risk for a host of issues from small head size to dependency on the drugs. Now, a new report suggests an additional health concern for babies exposed to opioids: a possible increased risk of gastroschisis, a birth defect that causes infants to be born with their intestines outside their bodies.  

    The report, published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, confirmed that rates of gastroschisis are increasing around the globe, something that doctors had reported anecdotally. Instances of the condition rose 10% when researchers compared two periods, 2006 to 2010, and 2011 to 2015.

    During this time, the rates of infants born exposed to opioids also increased. The report authors found that gastroschisis was more common when the rate of opioid use was also more common. 

    “Gastroschisis prevalence was higher in areas with high and medium opioid prescription rates, compared with that in areas with low rates,” the authors of the review wrote. “This ecologic analysis supports the findings from a large case-control study, which suggested that self-reported prescription opioid use in the first trimester was associated with gastroschisis.”

    Although researchers looked at the rate of prescription opioids — not illicit opioids — the findings suggest a connection between opioid use and the birth defect, and researchers said there is a need for more information about how opioid use may contribute to gastroschisis.

    “These findings provide compelling evidence of the need to better understand the potential contribution of opioid exposure in the etiology of gastroschisis as well as the possible role opioids have played in the observed increases in gastroschisis,” the authors wrote. 

    Speaking with Live Science, Dr. Saima Aftab, medical director at the Fetal Care Center at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, said “there’s something changing” in the prevalence of gastroschisis. Although the condition can be corrected with surgery, infants face risks with their digestion early on. Babies with the condition may have to be hospitalized for months following their delivery and surgery. 

    Because the CDC report does not provide any concrete answers about why and how opioids may contribute to gastroschisis, the authors said it will be important to conduct more research into the correlation.  

    “The findings … can be used to prioritize basic science, public health, and clinical research on opioid exposure during pregnancy and its potential impact on birth defects,” they wrote. “Having a better understanding of all possible effects of opioid use during pregnancy can help provide evidence-based information to health care providers and women about the potential risks to the developing fetus.”

    View the original article at thefix.com