$2.5M gift to create the Pollock Center for Addiction Outreach and Research
Penn State Harrisburg has received a leadership gift of $2.5 million from the Douglas W. Pollock Foundation to establish the Douglas W. Pollock Center for Addiction Outreach and Research on its campus. The center will address two areas of the substance abuse problem within the central Pennsylvania…
Study: Friends, family are most common gateway to addiction, not doctors
By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The often-told story of the prescription for an opioid that launches the patient down the road to ruin is not the typical tale of heroin addiction, according to a new report by researchers from Penn State and other universities. More common, according to the…
Share Your Opioid Story: A Community Conversation at Schlow Library on May 30
The Share Your Opioid Story initiative is hosting a Community Conversation at the Schlow Centre Region Library in State College to tell the stories behind the statistics of the opioid crisis. This community event will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 30 in the Downsbrough Community Room. To…
First annual conference to address substance misuse held at Penn State
Pennsylvania is in the midst of a full-fledged, substance misuse epidemic, with one out of every four families encountering this issue. Penn State is combating the crisis by drawing upon the expertise of researchers, educators, practitioners and policymakers, who gathered recently for the…
Report: Fentanyl scares some opioid users, but others seek it
Rich Lord
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Along the wide spectrum of opioid users, there are those who fear fentanyl and those who are its fans, according to a recently published study led by Penn State University researchers. Understanding the mindsets of both kinds of users may be a key to reducing the…
Digging Deeper: Opioid Crisis
The opioid crisis has affected every state in some way, but Pennsylvania has been one of the hardest hit. In 2017 alone, overdose death reached almost 5600 people. Unlike previous drug epidemics, the opioid crisis has affected rural and urban areas alike and may parts of the state are…
Understanding opioid users' views on fentanyl could help reduce overdoses
Opioid users fear accidental overdoses from street drugs laced with fentanyl, but unpredictable drug quality means they often lack reliable strategies to avoid it, according to a team of researchers who suggest that fentanyl test strips may reduce overdose deaths.
"The opioid crisis is one of the…
'Alexa, I’m in pain': Smart assistants could help combat opioid crisis
For patients suffering with chronic pain, relief could soon be found as close as their nearest smart assistant.
Researchers at Penn State are developing a way to deliver on-demand, guided mindfulness practices via Amazon Alexa to patients experiencing chronic pain. Through their method, a smart…
Opioid epidemic may have cost U.S. governments $37.8 billion in tax revenue
The opioid epidemic may have cost U.S. state and federal governments up to $37.8 billion in lost tax revenue due to opioid-related employment loss, according to Penn State researchers.
Additionally, the researchers found that Pennsylvania was one of the states with the most lost revenue, with…
Register Today for the CCSA Conference
There is still time to register for the Consortium to Combat Substance Abuse's first annual conference, Envisioning a Future Free from Addiction: Research, Programs, and Practice to Prevent Substance Abuse, to be held Monday, April 29, on Penn State’s University Park campus at the Hetzel Union…
Preventing Teen Substance Abuse
While legislators and researchers work together to develop treatment options and solutions for the nationwide opioid crisis, community members, schools and caregivers have turned their focus to developing ways to protect future generations from substance abuse. To help build resilient families in…
Consortium to Combat Substance Abuse announces Community Fellows
Penn State’s Consortium to Combat Substance Abuse recently announced the first three recipients of its Community Fellows Program awards.
The program provides release time for faculty members to develop community collaborations and build sustainable, evidence-based or evidence-informed…
Scientists discover hundreds more genes with potential link to addictions
Many human diseases, such as tobacco and alcohol addictions, are heritable. Until now, little has been known about what genetic factors contribute to these addictions, and if they put people at risk of inheriting other medical conditions. A recent study, published in Nature Genetics, reveals that…
Opioid initiative earns 2019 Community Engagement and Scholarship Award
The Share Your Opioid Story Initiative, led by Glenn Sterner, assistant professor of criminal justice at Penn State Abington, has received the 2019 Penn State Award for Community Engagement and Scholarship.
The award recognizes a project that best exemplifies Penn State as an “engaged institution…
Become a Certified Recovery Specialist
Do you have a history of addiction recovery and want to help others?
The Certified Recovery Specialist Program being offered through the Penn State Shenango and Beaver campuses is a 54-hour, peer support program designed to meet the current educational requirements for the CRS credentials set…
Employment Reductions and Government Revenue Losses from Opioid Misuse
By Amanda Honeycutt
The economic burden of the U.S. opioid epidemic likely exceeds $78.5 billion per year when considering its impact on healthcare, substance abuse treatment, the criminal justice system, and productivity costs. Although medication assisted treatment for opioid abuse (covered…
Inaugural substance abuse conference to be held April 29 at University Park
Penn State’s Consortium to Combat Substance Abuse (CCSA) will host a conference to bring together researchers, practitioners, policymakers, foundation representatives, and the public to discuss significant and emerging problems in combating substance abuse.
“Envisioning a Future Free from Addiction…
A close watch: IST seed grant funds study to assess and predict substance co-use
A technology-based intervention that could reduce the risk of young adults simultaneously using alcohol and marijuana may soon be as close as a user’s wrist, thanks to a new study launched by researchers at Penn State.
The team recently earned a seed grant from the College of Information Sciences…
Opioid crisis shows partnering with industry can be bad for public health
By Jonathan H. Marks, Director of the Bioethics Program and affiliate faculty in Law and International Affairs, Pennsylvania State University, for The Conversation
“Show me the bodies!” someone demanded at the end of my lecture a few years ago.
As a scholar of public health ethics, law and policy,…
Why Social Science? - Because It Requires Confronting the Assumptions We Have About Others
By Lee Hoffer, PhD, Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University
Social science comes in many varieties, is comprehensive in scope, and applied to an infinite number of real-world challenges, questions, and problems society faces. At its core, it concerns the human…
Sharkey shares impact of Penn State research across University and beyond
Since the University’s founding when Penn State’s first president Evan Pugh set forth the college’s research vision in 1859, innovation and knowledge creation have been a foundational element of the land-grant mission, according to Neil Sharkey, vice president for research.
Describing…
Project ECHO prepares doctors to manage addiction care closer to home
For patients suffering from opioid use disorder, and for the physicians in small towns across Pennsylvania who are their first level of care, Project ECHO offers hope. The effort aims to give primary care physicians the tools they need to treat the growing group of Pennsylvanians addicted to…
Student shares story of opioid addiction to support others
Erin Bergner, a Penn State Abington junior, is motivated, to say the least: She carries extra courses so she can graduate early, works in a faculty research lab, and holds down another part-time job. And all the while she is managing her recovery from opioid addiction and telling her story on…
Overdose deaths could increase with ‘changing nature’ of opioid epidemic
The opioid epidemic in the United States could be responsible for 700,000 overdose deaths between 2016 and 2025, according to a new study published today in JAMA Network Open.
“Preventing people from misusing prescription opioids is important and could help prevent some overdose deaths in the long…
Sterner awarded $2.7M to help fight opioid crisis
A Penn State Abington faculty member was instrumental in securing three grants totaling more than $2.7 million to combat the opioid epidemic in Pennsylvania and nationwide.
Glenn Sterner, assistant professor of criminal justice at Abington and an expert on the illicit use of opioids, said the…