Access Denied: Opioid Medication-Assisted Treatment and the Urgent Call for Change in Opioid Recovery 

by Emma Dolenfigures by Allie Elchert Imagine a dystopia where a person with diabetes needs to drive a few hours every day to get their insulin at a special insulin clinic. Let’s pretend that they only need insulin once a day. They set their alarm for bright and early and get in the car to travel to the clinic before it closes for the day … Continue reading Access Denied: Opioid Medication-Assisted Treatment and the Urgent Call for Change in Opioid Recovery 

Smartphone app may help detect opioid overdose

Opioid abuse is a national epidemic that continues to claim lives and cause significant economic burden. Opioids were introduced for the treatment of chronic pain and initially prescribed liberally, even though there was limited scientific evidence that these medications would not be addictive. Opioid overdose rates quickly increased and, in 2016 more than 40,000 people died from overdose. Computer scientists at the University of Washington in … Continue reading Smartphone app may help detect opioid overdose

Can We Treat Heroin Addiction and HIV with a Single Vaccine?

by Fernanda Ferreira figures by Brad Wierbowski Every day 140 Americans die from an opioid overdose. To confront the crisis, not only must opioid addiction treatment become more readily available, but new and improved forms of treatment must also be developed. Dr. Carl Alving, whose life work has been to develop an HIV vaccine, never planned on investigating novel systems for treating opioid addiction. But … Continue reading Can We Treat Heroin Addiction and HIV with a Single Vaccine?

Fighting the Opioid Addiction Crisis: Can scientists cure it?

by Mary May figures by Neal Akatsuka An estimated 59,000 to 65,000 Americans died due to drug overdoses last year, which is more than the number of deaths from HIV/AIDS at the peak of the epidemic in 1995 and more than the total number of American deaths in the Vietnam War. The over-prescription of pain-relieving opioid drugs like morphine and oxycodone has created another epidemic … Continue reading Fighting the Opioid Addiction Crisis: Can scientists cure it?