Health Care Professionals

Medication-assisted treatment shows promise for mothers, children of opioid crisis

CINCINNATI — In recent years, state officials in Ohio have cracked down on how doctors prescribe opioids and other addictive substances, along with how they report prescription drug abuse. A subsequent drop in the number of overdose deaths have addiction counselors cautiously optimistic that the new measures could be helping.

Dr. William Husel allegedly ordered excessive doses of fentanyl to speed the end of patients' lives. Some former colleagues are rallying around him.

When Matthew Braun gets out of medical school, he'll be able to prescribe opioids.A decade ago, he was addicted to them. "The first time I ever used an opioid, I felt the most confident and powerful I'd ever felt," Braun says. "So I said, 'This is it. I want to do this the rest of my life.' "

There's a reckoning underway in the courts about the damage wrought by the opioid crisis and who should pay for it.

Federal prosecutors are charging 11 doctors with unlawfully distributing opioids and other substances, in the second large operation to target "pill mill" operators and health care fraud this year. Two other people also face charges in the sting.

CINCINNATI — A Green Township doctor was one of 11 physicians charged in a federal drug bust, officials said in a news release Tuesday.

Even as awareness of the opioid crisis grew, prescribing habits of surgeons changed very little from 2011 to 2016, found a data analysis by Kaiser Health News and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.