One of the most serious public health concerns in recent decades has been the opioid epidemic in the United States (US). Over 9.9 million Americans aged 12 and up abused prescription pain drugs in 2018, and roughly 2 million Americans were diagnosed with opioid use disorder. In 2019, 49,860 drug overdose deaths (70.6 percent of all drug overdose deaths) were caused by opioid use and abuse. The opioid crisis has a huge influence on healthcare expenses and expenditures, in addition to the appalling toll on morbidity and death.

Previous studies on the expenses and expenditures of healthcare for...

Overdose is the leading cause of avoidable death among people who inject drugs. 

The ‘Stop Overdose Safely’ is a joint initiative from UNODC and the World Health Organization (WHO) to address opioid overdose and provide life-saving medications to those in need. The initiative serves as a platform for exchange and mutual support to effectively prevent and manage overdose.

The S-O-S initiative supports people likely to witness an overdose in the community, with a focus on people who use drugs, their peers, as well as family members.

The initiative sets a global implementation target of 90-90...

Worldwide, about 500 000 deaths are attributable to drug use. More than 70% of these deaths are related to opioids, with more than 30% of those deaths caused by overdose. 

This information page, put together by the World Health Organisation, provides key facts on opioid overdose.

The page includes:

• Overview of opioids
• Information on opioid overdose
• Risk factors for opioid overdose
• Emergency responses to opioid overdose
• Prevention of opioid overdose
• WHO response and recommendations

Abstract

Background: Some countries have used opioid agonist medications other than methadone and buprenorphine as a strategy to increase treatment diversity. In Iran and other countries where opium use is common and culturally tolerated, opium tincture (OT) has gained growing popularity and been approved to treat opioid use disorder (OUD). Given the increasing interest in this intervention, we conducted a systematic review of the literature to evaluate the safety and efficacy of OT-assisted treatment for OUD.

Methods: We systematically searched international (MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL...

The high dropout rate (75%) in opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment among women and racial/ethnic minorities in the United States necessitates a better knowledge of the factors that contribute to treatment success. While therapy and medication for OUD are considered the top standard of care in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, many people with OUD receive just counseling or methadone-only therapies. This study compares gender inequalities in methadone-based treatment plan progress to counseling-based programs in one of the biggest SUD treatment systems in the United States.

The...

In response to the rising efficacy of the illicit opioid drug supply and often observed delays in access to follow-up therapy, emergency departments (EDs) occasionally utilize a high-dose buprenorphine induction method for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). The objective of this study is to investigate the safety and tolerability of high-dose (>12 mg) buprenorphine induction for patients with OUD presenting to an ED.

Data were manually extracted from electronic health records for all ED patients with OUD treated with buprenorphine at a single, urban, safety-net hospital in Oakland...