News

In results University of Kentucky researchers are calling “alarming,” more than three out of 10 undergraduates reported using e-cigarettes, according to a new study published in the March 26 edition of the Journal of American College Health.

To assist the state’s hospitals in the battle against Opioid abuse, the Kentucky Hospital Association is partnering with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services as part of the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort to launch the Kentucky Statewide Opioid Stewardship (KY SOS) program.

The challenge we face is too complex for one approach or one solution. It changes shape and form too often for us not to partner in ways that make us more efficient and effective, but also nimble and capable of adapting as the challenge does.  

Nearly a decade ago, it was a small conference about an issue only starting to come out of the shadows of stigma and shame – the growing epidemic of opioid addiction and substance abuse disorder.

As the chair of the department, Dr. Roger Humphries has implemented policies and programs to help address the needs of the 350 to 400 patients they see per day who are affected by complications related to opioid use disorder.

When the Kentucky Cabinet for Family and Health Services put out a call for ideas to improve access to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), Drs. Laura Fanucchi, Michelle Lofwall and Sharon Walsh submitted a proposal.

For the eighth year, University of Kentucky administrators and researchers will join officials from local, state and federal agencies, as well as leaders from business, academia, and communities across the country impacted by prescription drug abuse for the 2019 RX Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta.

The four-year, more than $87 million study has an ambitious but profoundly important goal: reducing opioid overdose deaths by 40 percent in 16 counties that represent more than a third of Kentucky’s population.

Preliminary data shows that the Find Help Now Kentucky website, a near real-time treatment locator for substance use disorders, has had 70,000 individuals seeking help from the site since February 2018.

The University of Kentucky International Center, in cooperation with the Institute of International Education and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is hosting the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Enrichment Seminar: Combating Addiction, March 20-23, 2019.