As America’s opioid crisis deepens – overdoses kill more people than car crashes and shootings combined – some US states are looking to alternative medicine to provide safe alternatives to addictive painkillers.
US health science website statnews.com reports that “under intense pressure to combat the problem” some states are expanding their Medicaid programmes to cover a range of CAM therapies and treatments.
Stat reports that 12 states have implemented policies to encourage recipients to switch to therapies such as acupuncture, yoga and chiropractic. A further two – Maine and Vermont – are said to be considering the move after carrying out studies on effectiveness. The development is likely to greatly increase access to CAM treatments and attract new practitioners to the field, the website speculates.
• New York City has launched legal action against the makers of prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet and fentanyl, which have played a central role in the country’s opioid crisis, reports The Guardian. The London-based newspaper says that the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, announced a $500m lawsuit “to hold manufacturers and distributors to account”.