Addiction Medicine and Addiction Psychiatry Updates

 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395923000294 "Conclusions Naloxone access laws and pharmacy naloxone distribution were more consistently associated with decreases rather than increases in lifetime heroin and IDU among adolescents. Our findings therefore do not support concerns that naloxone access promotes high-risk adolescent substance use behaviors. As of 2019, all US states have adopted legislation to improve naloxone access and facilitate use. However, further removal of adolescent naloxone access barriers is an important priority given that the opioid epidemic continues to affect people of all ages."

  Xylazine Exposure Guidance The NC Division of Public Health has issued xylazine exposure guidance. This memo is intended to provide health care professionals with information regarding health impacts and management of patients exposed to xylazine through illicit drug use. 

The Curbsiders--Addiction Medicine  ::: The Addiction Files  ::: Addiction Medicine--Beyond the Abstract  (ASAM) ::: This Week in Addiction Medicine  (ASAM)

JAMA Netw Open.  2023;6(5):e2311294. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.11294 Question    Is nondisordered cannabis use (NDCU) among US adolescents associated with adverse psychosocial events? Findings    In this cross-sectional study of 68 263 adolescents, NDCU was approximately 4 times more common than cannabis use disorder (CUD). NDCU and CUD were both significantly associated with adverse psychosocial events in a stepwise gradient manner. Meaning    These findings suggest that adolescents with NDCU or CUD had increased odds of adverse psychosocial events.* *[These included major depression, suicidal ideation, slower thoughts, difficulty concentrating, truancy, low grade point average, arrest, fighting, and aggression.]   https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2804450

A majority of the unintended fatalities involved fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines. Prescription opioids, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, antiepileptics and sedatives were used in 2/3 of intentional overdoses. Christopher M. Jones, Carla Shoff, Carlos Blanco, Jan L. Losby, Shari M. Ling, Wilson M. Compton.  Association of Receipt of Opioid Use Disorder–Related Telehealth Services and Medications for Opioid Use Disorder With Fatal Drug Overdoses Among Medicare Beneficiaries Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic .   JAMA Psychiatry , 2023; DOI:   10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.0310

" Unrelieved chronic pain is considered a key factor contributing to the maintenance of alcohol use disorder (AUD). The mechanisms responsible for chronic pain associated with chronic alcohol consumption are still unknown. Thus, our goal was to evaluate the development of chronic pain in a mouse model of alcohol dependence and investigate the role of neuroinflammation in this chronic condition." Vittoria Borgonetti, Amanda J. Roberts, Michal Bajo, Nicoletta Galeotti, Marisa Roberto.  Chronic alcohol induced mechanical allodynia by promoting neuroinflammation: a mouse model of alcohol‐evoked neuropathic pain. .   British Journal of Pharmacology , 2023; DOI:   10.1111/bph.16091

  https://slate.com/technology/2023/04/alcohol-wine-drinking-healthy-dangerous-study.html "In 1991 an academic debate spilled out of ivory towers and into the popular imagination. That year, Serge Renaud, a celebrated and charismatic alcohol researcher at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research—who also hailed from a  winemaking family  in Bordeaux—made a fateful appearance on  60 Minutes ..."

  Beyond the X — Next Steps in Policy Reforms to Address the Overdose Crisis List of authors. Sarah E. Wakeman, M.D.,  and Leo Beletsky, J.D., M.P.H. ...As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, the federal government eliminated the “X waiver,” a regulatory barrier that had impeded clinicians’ ability to offer lifesaving buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD)... https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2301479