Kentucky Sues Drug Distributor for Starting Opioid Crisis
Kentucky’s attorney general filed a lawsuit Monday against the drug distributor Cardinal Health, CNBC reported. The lawsuit contends that the company didn’t “halt or report suspiciously large or frequent orders by pharmacies of prescription painkillers” and “ignored red flags that prescription opioids were being diverted for illegal uses, allowing it to profit in the process.” Kentucky’s lawsuit isn’t the first one against Cardinal Health, either: the drug distributor is currently facing “at least 343 opioid-related lawsuits,” which have been leveled by counties, cities and states. As recently as December 2016, Cardinal Health agreed to pay $44 million after the US Justice Department said it didn’t tell the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) about large opioid orders. If nothing else, it’s clear that the trend to hold companies accountable for their role in the nation’s opioid epidemic won’t end anytime soon.
Genetics Play Central Role in Opioid Addiction
Genetics likely play a key role in addiction, according to a new research study released on Thursday. CNN reported that more than 5,000 Americans’ genomes were analyzed by researchers. And while the study revealed that neurological and psychiatric diseases were very likely affected by genes, no individual gene in particular is to blame. The study’s senior author, Dr. Joel Gelernter, noted that while the analysis “is not a slam dunk,” the results add up to a pretty compelling story about the link between addiction and genetics. In fact, it’s currently believed that 40 to 60% of someone’s predisposal to addiction is based on genetic factors, CNN said. Researchers like Gelernter believe that continued research is necessary to develop new treatments and better predict the risk for addiction.
Chris Cornell’s Wife Opens Up about Drug Addiction
Vicky Cornell, the wife of late Soundgarden rocker Chris Cornell, discussed her husband’s struggles with substance abuse this week. Cornell, who died by suicide last year, had no less than seven different substances in his body when he died, according to Variety. In an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts, Vicky argued that drugs were a huge factor in his suicide, singling out the painkiller benzodiazepine in particular. “In retrospect I’ve learned [benzodiazepines are]not supposed to be given to anyone who’s in recovery, and if you have to give it, they have to be closely monitored and it should not be given for more than two or three weeks,” she said in the interview. “So he relapsed, and in a seven-day period he took 20-something pills, and in a nine-day period, 33.” Vicky also noted that her husband underwent several significant personality changes, including delayed speech, confusion and memory loss. “People think addiction is a choice and it’s not,” she said. “It’s in all of our houses, it has no boundaries, and I think if there was less stigma around it more people would speak up.”
Is A Drug Addiction Vaccine on the Way?
According to a fascinating Futurism.com piece, many researchers are currently hard at work on designing vaccines against the effects of drugs. The story pointed to The Scripps Research Institute’s recent report on heroin addiction prevention, calling the idea “fairly intuitive.” It also argued that an “antiheroin vaccine” would prevent heroin from crossing the blood-brain barrier which, in turn, would cause users to not feel a high at all. Similar vaccines are being developed to combat everything from cocaine to nicotine. “Whether prescription opioid painkillers, heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, nicotine, or even alcohol, the need for new, innovative, ways to address addiction is severe,” the story said. “Given the sheer number of people addicted and dying each year as a result and the distressing lack of available options for treatment, the need for drastic intervention is clear.” Researchers contend that if drug users no longer experience the highs produced by their drugs of choice, they’ll be less likely to relapse on that drug. This week, the Journal of the American Chemical Society reported that an anti-epilepsy medication known as vigabatrin has “been shown to be effective against addiction to cocaine, nicotine, methamphetamine, heroin and alcohol in animal models.” What’s more is that vigabatrin cured cocaine addiction in 1/3 of a study’s subjects. Still, some argue that drug addiction vaccines are a long way off. “The vaccines seem very promising, and they’re novel, providing a different mechanism to prevent substance abuse,” one psychiatry professor told Futurism.com. “But there is still a lot of work to do.”
New Study: Alcohol Is A Huge Dementia Driver
A new study published Tuesday reveals that physicians have long underestimated the connection between alcohol consumption and dementia, Gizmodo.com reported. French researchers examined 1 million patients diagnosed with dementia between 2008 and 2013, the story said, and quickly found that “heavy alcohol use was a substantial risk factor for every common type of dementia, particularly early-onset cases caught before the age of 65.” Nearly 30,000 patients diagnosed with dementia either demonstrated symptoms of alcohol-related brain damage or suffered from alcoholism. Overall, the study’s researchers estimated that people suffering from alcohol problems were three times more likely to develop dementia. Many hope that the study’s findings will spur policy changes such as increased alcohol taxes and advertising bans. “If all these measures are implemented widely, they could not only reduce dementia incidence or delay dementia onset, but also reduce all alcohol-attributable morbidity and mortality,” the researchers wrote.
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