Association of initial opioid prescription duration and an opioid refill by pain diagnosis: Evidence from outpatient settings in ten US health systems.

Objective: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain cautioned that inflexible opioid prescription duration limits may harm patients. Information about the relationship between initial opioid prescription duration and a subsequent refill could inform prescribing policies and practices to optimize patient outcomes. We assessed the association between initial opioid duration and an opioid refill prescription.

Prescription Opioid Dose Reductions and Potential Adverse Events: a Multi-site Observational Cohort Study in Diverse US Health Systems.

Background: In response to the opioid crisis in the United States, population-level prescribing of opioids has been decreasing; there are concerns, however, that dose reductions are related to potential adverse events.

Objective: Examine associations between opioid dose reductions and risk of 1-month potential adverse events (emergency department (ED) visits, opioid overdose, benzodiazepine prescription fill, all-cause mortality).

Design: This observational cohort study used electronic health record and claims data from eight United States health systems in a prescription opioid registry (Clinical Trials Network-0084).

The association between buprenorphine treatment duration and mortality: a multi-site cohort study of people who discontinued treatment.

Background And Aims: Buprenorphine is an effective medication for opioid use disorder that reduces mortality; however, many patients are not retained in buprenorphine treatment, and an optimal length of treatment after which patients can safely discontinue treatment has not been identified. This study measured the association between buprenorphine treatment duration and all-cause mortality among patients who discontinued treatment. Secondary objectives were to measure the association between treatment duration and drug overdose and opioid-related overdoses.

Development and implementation of a prescription opioid registry across diverse health systems.

Objective: Develop and implement a prescription opioid registry in 10 diverse health systems across the US and describe trends in prescribed opioids between 2012 and 2018.

Materials And Methods: Using electronic health record and claims data, we identified patients who had an outpatient fill for any prescription opioid, and/or an opioid use disorder diagnosis, between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2018. The registry contains distributed files of prescription opioids, benzodiazepines and other select medications, opioid antagonists, clinical diagnoses, procedures, health services utilization, and health plan membership.

Efficacy and safety of gefapixant, a P2X receptor antagonist, in refractory chronic cough and unexplained chronic cough (COUGH-1 and COUGH-2): results from two double-blind, randomised, parallel-group, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trials.

Background: Gefapixant is an oral P2X receptor antagonist that has previously shown efficacy and safety in refractory chronic cough and unexplained chronic cough. We therefore aim to confirm the efficacy and safety of gefapixant in participants with refractory chronic cough and unexplained chronic cough.

Methods: COUGH-1 and COUGH-2 were both double-blind, randomised, parallel-group, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trials.

Validation of a visual analog scale for assessing cough severity in patients with chronic cough.

Introduction: Patients with chronic cough experience considerable burden. The cough severity visual analog scale (VAS) records patients' assessment of cough severity on a 100-mm linear scale ranging from "no cough" (0 mm) to "worst cough" (100 mm). Although cough severity scales are widely used in clinical practice and research, their use in patients with refractory or unexplained chronic cough has not been formally validated.

Future directions for medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorder with American Indian/Alaska Natives.

The U.S. is experiencing an alarming opioid epidemic, and although American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) are especially hard hit, there is a paucity of opioid-related treatment research with these communities.

Advancing American Indian and Alaska Native substance abuse research: current science and future directions.

American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) have disproportionately high rates of substance abuse yet there is little empirical research addressing this significant public health problem. This paper is an introduction to a special issue that includes cutting edge science in this research area. We identify several areas that require consideration in this field and indicate how the papers in the special issue address these gaps.

Conducting research with racial/ethnic minorities: methodological lessons from the NIDA Clinical Trials Network.

Background: Multiple studies in the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network (CTN) demonstrate strategies for conducting effective substance abuse treatment research with racial/ethnic minorities (REMs).

Objectives: The objectives of this article are to describe lessons learned within the CTN to (1) enhance recruitment, retention, and other outcomes; (2) assess measurement equivalence; and (3) use data analytic plans that yield more information.

Method: This article includes background information and examples from multiple CTN studies on inclusion, measurement, and data analysis.

Addiction treatment trials: how gender, race/ethnicity, and age relate to ongoing participation and retention in clinical trials.

Introduction: Historically, racial and ethnic minority populations have been underrepresented in clinical research, and the recruitment and retention of women and ethnic minorities in clinical trials has been a significant challenge for investigators. The National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) conducts clinical trials in real-life settings and regularly monitors a number of variables critical to clinical trial implementation, including the retention and demographics of participants.

Purpose: The examination of gender, race/ethnicity, and age group differences with respect to retention characteristics in CTN trials.

Principles for defining adverse events in behavioral intervention research: lessons from a family-focused adolescent drug abuse trial.

Background: Behavioral intervention research has lagged behind biomedical research in developing principles for defining, categorizing, identifying, reporting, and monitoring adverse events and unanticipated problems.

Purpose: In this article we present a set of principles for defining adverse events and how they were applied in a large national multi-site family therapy study for substance-using adolescents, The Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) Effectiveness Study.

Methods: The BSFT Effectiveness study tested how BSFT compares to Treatment as Usual (TAU) for the treatment of drug-abusing adolescents.

Heterozygous mutations of growth hormone receptor gene in children with idiopathic short stature.

Objective: The term idiopathic short stature (ISS) describes children: (a) whose height is more than two standard deviations below the mean; (b) with normal or slow height velocity; (c) of normal birth weight; (d) showing an absence of specific endocrine abnormalities; and (e) having no evidence of chronic physical or psychological illness. It has been suggested that partial growth hormone (GH) insensitivity due to heterozygous mutations of the GH Receptor gene may account for some cases of ISS.

Design And Methods: GHR gene was investigated (SSCP assay and direct sequencing) in 37 ISS patients.