opioids

  • Americans’ Legal Opioid Use Hasn’t Budged Much Over The Past Decade

    Americans’ Legal Opioid Use Hasn’t Budged Much Over The Past Decade

    Above, pills containing a combination of the opioid oxycodone with acetaminophen, commonly sold as the brand name drug Percocet.Photo: Patrick Sison (AP) Despite a growing awareness of the dangers and risks of opioid addiction among doctors and patients, the average amount of opioids prescribed to Americans over the past decade has barely budged, suggests a…


  • Opioid-Addicted Americans Seem To Have This Genetic Variation In Common

    Opioid-Addicted Americans Seem To Have This Genetic Variation In Common

    Who you are is the result of a complicated interplay between your environment, your genes, and probably a few other factors science has yet to uncover. Genetics influence somewhere around half of a person’s “vulnerability to addiction,” according to the US National Institute on Drug Abuse. Now, as opioid addiction has reached epidemic levels in…