Surgical patients are being given more opioids than they need for postsurgical pain management, raising the risk of addiction.

Women who are prescribed opioids after childbirth have an increased risk of persistent opioid use or other serious opioid-related events, including overdose, in their first year postpartum, according to a new study by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers. This is true regardless of whether the woman had a vaginal delivery or a cesarean section.

Pregnant women involved in the criminal justice system are disproportionately not receiving medications for opioid use disorder, as compared to their peers, according to a Vanderbilt-led study published today in PLOS Medicine.

Rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) have plateaued after 20 years of increasing frequency across the country, according to a new study published in Health Affairs. NAS is a withdrawal syndrome experienced by some opioid-exposed newborns after birth.

A new poll from the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy found that few Tennessee parents take steps to safeguard opioids at home, an important concern when children are spending more time indoors due to COVID-19 social distancing recommendations.

An opioid-restrictive prescribing protocol reduced the number of postoperative opioid prescriptions and the oral morphine equivalent per prescription.

The Division of TennCare will partner with VUMC as part of the MOM program focusing on 26 rural and urban counties to improve the outcomes for women with opioid use disorder and their infants.