OD Deaths Decline in U.S., Driven By Drop In Opioid Fatalities

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• February 21, 2025
• Full Page

America’s opioid crisis is showing signs of subsiding, a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.

Drug overdose deaths (OD) decreased by 4% between 2022 and 2023, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statist...

Fatal Opioid-Meth Overdoses Have Fallen in U.S. by More Than a Third

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• October 22, 2024
• Full Page

Expanded access to addiction treatment and the overdose-reversal med naloxone likely prompted a 37% reduction in OD deaths linked to opioids taken with meth or other s...

Recreational Drug Use Triples Odds for Repeat Heart Crises

• Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
• August 28, 2024
• Full Page

Recreational drug users are three times more likely to have repeated heart health emergencies than people who don’t use, a new study has found.

About 11% of patients admitted to intensive cardiac care units have been using recreational drugs, said researcher

Two-Drug Treatment Could Curb Meth Addiction

• Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay Reporter
• June 10, 2024
• Full Page

Though overdose deaths continue to surge, there is no approved medication to treat methamphetamine use disorder.

Now, an experimental two-drug therapy has yielded promising results, UCLA researchers report.

"These findings have important implications for pharmacolo...

Any Kind of Drug Abuse Treatment Can Help Gay Men Kick Meth Habit

• Ernie Mundell HealthDay Reporter
• December 5, 2023
• Full Page

Methamphetamine abuse has long plagued the gay community, but a new study finds that any form of substance abuse treatment can help users quit.

In a news release, University of California, Los Angeles researchers explained that men who have sex with men are "a population...

U.S. Deaths Involving Meth Are Skyrocketing, Fentanyl a Big Factor

• Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter
• February 21, 2023
• Full Page

Deaths from methamphetamine among Americans increased 50-fold between 1999 and 2021, a chilling new study reports.

Most of these deaths also involved heroin or fentanyl, according to researchers.

"The staggering increase in methamphetamine-related deaths in the Uni...

Cases of Meth-Linked Heart Failure Are Spreading Worldwide

• Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
• December 2, 2022
• Full Page

Methamphetamine wreaks havoc on the heart, warns new research that shows heart failure rates linked to the illicit drug are on the rise around the world.

Not only are these cases increasing, but they are more severe than traditional heart failure cases and they are stri...

Marijuana, Meth, Cocaine Use Can Help Trigger Dangerous A-Fib

• Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter
• October 20, 2022
• Full Page

Using marijuana increases the risk of developing the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation (a-fib), a new study suggests.

It's been known that drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine an...

Meth Plays Big Role in Drug ODs in Rural America

• Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter
• August 16, 2022
• Full Page

Methamphetamine is driving an epidemic of drug overdoses in rural America, a new study concludes.

Researchers attribute the surge to meth laced with fentanyl or combined with an opioid tha...

Psychosis Risk Rises When People Abuse 'Speed'

• HealthDay Reporter
• February 15, 2022
• Full Page

Amphetamines can pull people into a vicious cycle of addiction, but new research now shows that people who abuse these stimulants are also five times more likely to develop psychosis than non-users.

The effect of "speed" on neurotransmitter signaling in the brain often c...

Opioids, Cocaine, Meth Are Hitting America's Black Communities Hardest

• HealthDay Reporter
• February 10, 2022
• Full Page

Combined use of opioids and stimulant drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine can be deadly, and in the United States Black communities have been hit especially hard by this lethal combo, new research indicates.

Over a 12-year period, Black Americans have had much larger ...

Over 100,000 Americans Died From Drug Overdoses in One Year: Report

• Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter
• November 17, 2021
• Full Page

New government data confirms what many have suspected: The pandemic has prompted a record number of drug overdose deaths, with more than 100,000 Americans succumbing to addiction as COVID-19 raged across the country.

That figure is almost 30% higher than the previous yea...

DEA Warns of Fentanyl in Counterfeit Opioid Pills

• HealthDay Reporter
• Cara Murez
• September 29, 2021
• Full Page

People buying pills that look like prescription opioid painkillers or stimulants who are not buying them from a licensed pharmacy may be buying a lethal drug, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration warned this week.

This was the first public safety alert the DEA has is...

U.S. Meth Overdose Deaths Tripled in Recent Years

• HealthDay Reporter
• Steven Reinberg
• September 23, 2021
• Full Page

Deaths from methamphetamine overdoses in the United States nearly tripled between 2015 and 2019, health officials report in a new study.

While the number of methamphetamine users did not increase as steeply, researchers said frequent use of methamphetamine, and using oth...