Month: February 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…