In two new papers, a team of Massachusetts researchers examined the implementation of a groundbreaking opioid use disorder medication treatment program in seven jails across the state – part of a $155 million national effort to address the opioid crisis in criminal justice settings.

The rate of overdose deaths among U.S. teenagers nearly doubled in 2020, the first year of the COVID pandemic, and rose another 20% in the first half of 2021 compared with the 10 years before the pandemic, even as drug use remained generally stable during the same period. This is the first time in recorded history that the teen drug death rate has seen an exponential rise, even though rates of illicit drug use among teens are at all-time lows,

A small phase I clinical trial has tested an anti-HIV strategy involving an adeno-associated viral vector–based gene delivery system that instructs cells to pump out antibodies that block HIV. In the trial of eight adults with HIV, the treatment was safe and well tolerated, and all participants produced measurable amounts of anti-HIV antibodies in the blood.

University of New Mexico researchers use manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging to capture time-lapse images of the living brain.

Researchers found that opioid prescriptions for children who underwent one of eight common outpatient surgeries declined over a period of five years. These findings suggest that clinicians are using more discretion when considering which pediatric patients require an opioid prescription after their procedures.

People who reported multiple symptoms consistent with severe substance use disorder at age 18 exhibited two or more of these symptoms in adulthood, according to a new analysis of a nationwide survey in the United States. These individuals were also more likely, as adults, to use and misuse prescription medications, as well as self-treat with opioids, sedatives, or tranquillizers. Published today in JAMA Network Open, the study is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

While it's estimated that 1 in 3 Americans will develop a substance use disorder in their lifetime, experts know little about the long-term outcomes for people with substance use disorder symptoms from adolescence through adulthood.

Law enforcement seizures of drugs containing fentanyl—especially pills—are increasing in the United States, according to new research published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The number of seized pills containing fentanyl has climbed dramatically: more than 2 million fentanyl-laced pills were confiscated in the last quarter of 2021, nearly 50 times the number seized in early 2018.