2023 NABH Annual Meeting Presentations Now Available
Earlier this week NABH posted all 2023 Annual Meeting
presentations for which the association has received permission to share publicly.
Please remember to save the date for next year’s Annual Meeting:
May 13-15, 2024 at the Salamander Washington, DC. We look forward to seeing you then!
We Want Your Opinion: Please Submit Your 2023 Annual Meeting Evaluation!
NABH welcomes your feedback on the 2023 Annual Meeting held in Washington, D.C. last week.
If you attended this year’s Annual Meeting, please take a moment to complete NABH’s 10-question evaluation
form if you have not done so already.
Your comments help to inform future NABH Annual Meetings. Thank you for your time!
SAMHSA Releases Resource on Findings from Drug-Related ED Visits in 2022
Alcohol was reported in the highest percentage of drug-related emergency department (ED) visits (45.0%) in 2022, followed by opioids (12.7%) and cannabis (11.9%), according to data from the
Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN): Findings from Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits, 2022 that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released this week.
DAWN is a nationwide public health surveillance system that captures data on ED visits related to recent substance use directly from the electronic health records of participating hospitals. In 2022, DAWN identified 143,596 (unweighted) drug-related ED visits from 53 participating hospitals.
These data were analyzed to generate 1) nationally representative weighted estimates for all drug-related ED visits, 2) the top drugs involved in drug-related ED visits, 3) for different opioid types involved in ED visits, 4) to describe polysubstance in ED visits, and 5) to identify newly mentioned drugs in 2022.
The analysis for 2022 also showed heroin (5.6%) and prescription or other opioid (5.0%) were reported more often than fentanyl (2.7%) in drug-related ED visits.
CDC: Nearly One in Five U.S. Adults Report Having Ever Been Diagnosed with Depression
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show nearly one in five U.S. adults reported having ever been diagnosed with depression, although the rate – averaging at 18.4% in 2020 –varies significantly by state and county.
State-level, age-standardized estimates ranged from 12.7% in Hawaii to 27.5% in West Virginia. Meanwhile, model-based, age-standardized, county-level prevalence estimates ranged from 10.7% to 31.9%, and there was considerable state-level and county-level variability.
The CDC notes decisionmakers can use these estimates to guide resource allocation to areas where the need is greatest, possibly by implementing recommendations from
The Guide to Community Preventive Services Task Force and SAMHSA.
NIH Study Deepens Understanding of Possible Mechanism Through Which Xylazine Affects Overdose Risk
A new
study in rats suggests that xylazine, the active ingredient in a non-opioid veterinary tranquilizer not approved for human use, can worsen the life-threatening effects of opioids.
Published in
Psychopharmacology, the study’s findings imply that when used in combination with opioid drugs such as fentanyl and heroin, xylazine may damage the ability of the brain to get enough oxygen, one of the most dangerous effects of opioid drugs that can lead to death.
Research has shown xylazine is often added to illicit opioids, including fentanyl, and that xylazine has been increasingly detected in the illicit opioid supply.
“Drug mixtures containing both xylazine and opioids such as fentanyl demonstrate how rapidly the drug supply can change, and how dangerous products can proliferate despite rampant overdose deaths,” Nora Volkow, M.D, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse – which led the study – said in a statement about the study. “Understanding the mechanisms behind how xylazine contributes to drug overdoses is essential to enable us to develop interventions that can reverse overdoses and save lives,” she continued. “In the meantime, naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal medication, should always be administered in the event of an overdose because xylazine is most often combined with opioids such as fentanyl.”
Fact of the Week:
Men had a two-to-three times greater rate of overdose mortality from opioids – such as fentanyl and heroin – and psychostimulants –such as methamphetamine and cocaine – than women, according to a new
study published in
Neuropsychopharmacology.
For questions about CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond.
