Martha Bebinger

Opioid overdoses and related deaths are still climbing, according to U.S. statistics. Teasing out which overdoses are intentional can be hard, but is important for treatment, doctors say.

Most transgender Americans say they are discriminated against, but not everyone agrees on where it's coming from according to a new NPR poll.

Many surgeons prescribe strong pain medicine without knowing how much their patients actually need. A group of doctors says hospitals should be accountable for patients' long-term opioid use.

Such attacks among women and some men with an opioid addiction often go unreported because the victims fear retaliation from drug dealers or charges from police.

A week after violent clashes during a white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Va., today's "Free Speech" rally in Boston was met with massive counter-protests.

Doctors, consumers and politicians say big federal cuts to Medicaid funding would jeopardize the treatment a lot of kids rely on. The state would either have to make up lost funding or cut benefits.

People often turn to public restrooms as a place to get high on opioids. It has led some establishments to close their facilities, while others are training employees to help people who overdose.

Emergency room doctors are just beginning to study a new kind of casualty in the opioid epidemic — patients who survive an overdose, but walk away with brain damage, kidney failure or dead muscle.

People who abuse opioids are well aware of the risk posed by fentanyl, a powerful anesthetic that's increasingly slipped into heroin and other drugs. They're coming up with new tactics to survive.

Law enforcement is scrambling to get ahead of the opioid, which is far more chemically potent than heroin. Most illegal fentanyl is made in China. As soon as one version is outlawed, another pops up.