The recent review by Vowles et al. 5 on the rates of opioid misuse, abuse, and addiction in chronic pain is a sorely needed step in the right direction toward better defining and understanding the prevalence of opioid misuse, abuse, and addiction among individuals with chronic pain. The authors are to be applauded for both synthesizing and advocating for literature using explicit definitions of...

Chronic orofacial pain is common and complex, and it is frequently accompanied by comorbidities. These comorbidities include not only pain that may occur in other parts of the body (eg, neck pain, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel) but also psychosocial disorders such as depression, mood dysfunction, and sometimes substance use disorders involving drugs prescribed to manage the pain condition. For ...

Dependence on and abuse of prescription opioid drugs is now a major health problem, with initiation of prescription opioid abuse exceeding cocaine in young people. Coincident with the emergence of abuse and dependence on prescription opioids, there has been an increased emphasis on the treatment of pain. Pain is now the "5th vital sign" and physicians face disciplinary action for failure to ade...

For a long time, international drug policy was seen as of prohibition whose sole aim to eradicate addiction. The so-called opioid crisis that has hit the United States over last twenty years reminded public opinion

Addiction to the illicit and prescribed use of opiate is an alarming public health issue. Studies on addictive disorders have demonstrated severe nutritional deficiencies in opiate abusers with behavioral, physiological and cognitive symptoms. Opiate addiction is also link with a significant number of diseases including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and other blood...

Digiusto E, Shakeshaft A, Ritter A, et al. Serious adverse events in the Australian National Evaluation of Pharmacotherapies for Opioid Dependence (NEPOD). Addiction 2004;99:450–60. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....

Patients receiving opioid treatment for chronic pain, many of whom were hospitalized with medical complications of substance abuse, were asked to complete a screening questionnaire to help validate a simple self-administered survey. Questions relating to tobacco abuse and prior treatment for drug and alcohol abuse distinguished patients with addiction and pain from opioid-treated chronic pain p...

Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of addiction requires an integration of basic neuroscience with social psychology, experimental psychology, and psychiatry. Addiction is presented as a cycle of spiralling dysregulation of brain reward systems that progressively increases, resulting in compulsive drug use and a loss of control over drug-taking. Sensitization and counteradaptation are...

BACKGROUND Opioid addiction and overdose are epidemic in the U.S. Victims of traumatic injury are at greater than average risk for opioid misuse and related complications. Potential risk screens and preventive interventions in this clinical population remain under-investigated. The current project seeks to develop and pilot the implementation of a screening tool for opioid risk at American Coll...