There are many societal issues and life events that contribute to West Virginia's addiction and overdose crisis. Research at the university can help address these problems and create a healthier West Virginia.
When you think of ways to treat opioid use disorder, you might think methadone clinics and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. You probably don’t imagine stretches and strengthening exercises. But Anne Swisher—professor at the WVU School of Medicine—is working to address opioid misuse in an unconventional way: through physical therapy.
Erin Winstanley, associate professor in the WVU School of Medicine Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry and Department of Neuroscience, led a study finding that rural women with substance use disorders may have experienced significantly more childhood trauma than their male counterparts.
West Virginia University researcher Dr. Judith Feinberg, a Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry professor with the School of Medicine, will co-lead a study to learn more about the off-label use of rapid response fentanyl test strips as an opioid overdose prevention strategy.
What if doctors could prevent opioid addiction with opioids? Shane Kaski, a graduate student in the WVU School of Medicine, explored how supplementing morphine—a highly addictive opioid—with a less addictive opioid may increase each drug’s effectiveness. The lower doses that result could mean fewer side effects and less risk of addiction.
In 2017, West Virginia healthcare providers wrote 81.3 opioid prescriptions for every 100 state residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national average? Just 58.7. Treah Haggerty and Cara Sedney—researchers in the WVU School of Medicine—are studying how a West Virginia law changed the way healthcare providers prescribe opioids.
WVU’s Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and the WVU Medicine Center for Integrative Pain Management’s efforts to improve military pain medicine care for soldiers in the field, including develop better methods of treating pain amid a national opioid epidemic, were recognized by a national award for excellence in military pain medicine.
West Virginia University’s efforts to address chronic disease and substance abuse prevention, growing concerns related to vaping and youth mental health issues will be bolstered by an award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fund the West Virginia Prevention Research Center in the School of Public Health.
West Virginians may gain better access to investigational approaches to managing and preventing substance use disorders related to the ongoing opioid epidemic as part of a collaborative $5.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
With West Virginia leading the nation in opioid related deaths, five of the state’s most influential institutions are joining with the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission to increase awareness of the issue and possible solutions.
Yanfang (Fanny) Ye, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering at West Virginia University, has been awarded a grant from the National Institute of Justice in support of her work to develop novel artificial intelligence techniques to combat the opioid epidemic and trafficking.
As part of an ongoing commitment to battle opioid addiction, the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University today marked a major milestone, enrolling the first patient in a randomized clinical trial that will test the effectiveness of an injectable non-opioid, non-steroid micropellet to treat sciatica.
Based at West Virginia University’s Eastern Campus in Martinsburg, Joy Buck, a WVU School of Nursing professor, and her collaborators will gather real-time data about overdose trends and assess the cultural barriers to—and facilitators of—overdose prevention. The findings gleaned from her pilot project may prove useful in other rural areas across the nation.
Four factors increase the odds that a patient will wind up on chronic opioid therapy, suggests research led by Nilanjana Dwibedi, an assistant professor in the WVU School of Pharmacy. It was the first study to investigate the risk of transitioning to incident chronic opioid use among patients with noncancer pain.
The WVU School of Dentistry will be at the forefront of exploring potential ways of changing the way we can improve lives, eliminate or reduce pain and anxiety, while at the same time meeting the opioid crisis head on by greatly reducing and eventually removing the need for such medications from our pharmacologic inventory and treatment plans.