Addiction experts are in wide agreement on the most effective way to help opioid addicts: Medication-assisted treatment. WSJ’s Jason Bellini reports on why the medication option is controversial, and in many places, hard to come by. The new FDA measures are a further effort to stem the opioid-addiction crisis that has led to an estimated 47,000 opioid-painkiller overdose deaths in 2017 alone. The agency plans for the first time to require makers of opioid pain pills to conduct long-term studies of their drugs’ long-term effectiveness. The FDA has long...

Source: Wall Street Journal February 26, 2019 16:37 UTC