Year: 2019

In this post, I share a few thoughts about the benefits and limitations of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for the moderate to severe opioid-use disorder (OUD). Background Approximately 2.1 million people suffer from OUD, a chronic relapsing illness characterized by repeated, compulsive opioid seeking or use despite harm. The most recent data on fatalities from the opioid overdose…

In this post, I share a few thoughts about erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP), a serious debilitating condition for which there are presently no approved treatments. EPP is a rare inherited disorder of heme biosynthesis characterized by dermal photosensitivity secondary to a partial deficiency of ferrochelatase. In a phenotypically similar X-linked protoporphyria (XLP), there is overactivity of the…

The most recent data on fatalities from the opioid overdose crisis are for the year 2017, published in MMWR on January 4, 2019. They show that while overdose deaths from both prescription opioids and heroin remained stable during 2016-2017, there was a significant increase in overdose deaths due to synthetic opioids. In this post, I share a…

In this post, I share a few thoughts about the use of fentanyl test strips (FTS) to reduce opioid overdose complications and death. More than 2.1 million Americans have an opioid use disorder (OUD), including 626,000 with heroin related OUD. According data on the opioid overdose crisis from the January 4, 2019 issue MMWR, 47,600 Americans died of opioid overdoses in 2017, a…

In this post, I share a few thoughts about the most recent data on the opioid overdose crisis from Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (January 4, 2019) which show a 12% year over year increase in opioid overdose deaths (2016-2017). The opioid overdose crisis continues to worsen and evolve due to the ongoing increase in fatalities involving…