Medicine

Gabapentin, a drug viewed as an alternative to opioids, is being abused across Ohio, experts and state officials warn. The misuse could lead the state to reclassify the drug.

Even as awareness of the opioid crisis grew, prescribing habits of surgeons changed very little from 2011 to 2016, found a data analysis by Kaiser Health News and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

A Hamilton, Ohio doctor will likely spend the rest of his life in prison after a jury convicted him of 37 charges related to illegally prescribing pain pills to patients.

The drug companies that Ohio officials blame for fueling the state’s opioid epidemic are demanding highly personal information about its victims.

A doctor who was an early evangelist for increased use of highly addictive opioids like OxyContin to treat chronic pain--and who was paid to promote the idea--has switched sides and now says drug makers helped to create a U.S. epidemic by failing to acknowledge the risks of abuse.

The U.S. Surgeon General’s office estimates that more than 20 million people have a substance use disorder. Meanwhile, the nation’s drug overdose crisis shows no sign of slowing. Yet, by all accounts, there aren’t nearly enough physicians who specialize in treating addiction — doctors with extensive clinical training who are board-certified in addiction medicine.

New research uncovers more damage wrought by the opioid epidemic: Cases of a dangerous heart infection linked to injection drug use have spiked in recent years at an Ohio medical center.

Bill Kinkle hasn't worked as a nurse in nearly a decade. But the Pennsylvania man never leaves home without emergency medical supplies. Always on his belt: naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose and save a life.