Controlled Drugs

Meldonium use widespread among elite athletes

Research finds 43 of the 66 athletes who tested positive for meldonium during 2015 European Games in Azerbaijan did not declare it.…

Review of tramadol use within NHS Scotland following reclassification

After growing reports of misuse and harm, including increased implication in drug-related deaths, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs recommended that tramadol should be reclassified as a class C, Schedule 3 drug. This was enacted in June 2014. In primary care, the main change required…

Review of 2015: ten developments that are changing pharmacy

The pharmacy landscape continues to shift amid a backdrop of austere UK public spending and the rising spectre of centralised dispensing in the community. The Pharmaceutical Journal presents ten developments that affected pharmacists in 2015.…

NICE consults on its first guideline on the safe use of controlled drugs

The first national guideline for the safe use and management of controlled drugs has been published in draft form by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and is now out for consultation.…

Study supports safety of medical cannabis for chronic pain

Patients with chronic pain who medicate with cannabis were at no higher risk of serious adverse events than patients who did not take cannabis.…

Full health record access for pharmacists ‘would reduce palliative care delays’

RPS Scotland says lack of records access for community pharmacists delays care and risks patient safety.…

FDA approves opioid Oxycontin for adolescents

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of the opioid OxyContin (oxycodone) for children aged 11–16 years whose pain is severe enough to require daily around-the-clock long-term treatment for which alternative options are inadequate.…

RPS publishes updated version of MEP guide for pharmacists

Medicines, Ethics and Practice 39 includes guidance to reflect latest changes to legislation and standards.…

Illicit drug users are on the rise, finds UN report

Worldwide an estimated 246 million people used an illicit drug in 2013, a rise of three million over the previous year, says a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.…

Painkiller use is more closely linked to homicide than antipsychotics or antidepressants

There is a closer association between use of painkillers and homicide than there is between the use of antipsychotics or antidepressants and killing someone, research shows.…