THURSDAY, Sept. 14, 2023 (HealthDay News) — The “fourth wave” of the U.S. overdose crisis involves the use of illicit fentanyl mixed with stimulants such as cocaine or methamphetamine, and it’s killing people in droves. The proportion of U.S. overdose deaths involving both fentanyl and stimulants jumped by more thanContinue Reading

THURSDAY, May 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) — When people receive methadone treatment for opioid use disorder, their use of the dangerous drugs heroin and fentanyl significantly declines, a new study shows. But decreases in cocaine or methamphetamine use were not seen in a year of treatment, researchers report. “Methadone treatmentContinue Reading

WEDNESDAY, March 8, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Contrary to concerns, wider availability of naloxone treatment is not increasing heroin use among U.S. teens, new research finds. Naloxone (Narcan) quickly reverses an overdose from opioids like heroin, fentanyl, morphine and oxycodone (OxyContin). There had been some worry that expanding access toContinue Reading

TUESDAY, Feb. 21, 2023 (HealthDay News) — 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 United States is largely now driven byContinue Reading

TUESDAY, Dec. 13, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Researchers already knew that injecting drugs can lead to the dangerous and deadly heart infection called endocarditis. Now they know that also becoming infected with COVID-19 appears to increase risk for this already vulnerable group. “A lot of people talk about long COVID,Continue Reading

THURSDAY, Oct. 20, 2022 (HealthDay News) — 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 and opiates can directly affect the heart and cause abnormal rhythms like a-fib, but weed canContinue Reading

TUESDAY, Aug. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) — 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 that contains fentanyl. “Methamphetamine is increasingly contaminated or adulterated with fentanyl, which is 50Continue Reading