The Opioid Epidemic: How Did We Get Here?

Welp, we've done it, folks. It's finally come to this. There have been so many deaths from opioid overdose, so many addicts created, so many pills diverted, that the CDC is getting involved. Opioid pain medications, commonly prescribed to treat acute and chronic sources of pain, are a significant cause of morbidity (harm) and mortality (death) in America. In 2014, the CDC reported a total of 47,055 drug overdose deaths in the United States, 61% of which were attributable to opioids. So how exactly did we get here? Like most things in medicine, there is not one simple answer. But it's not that hard to trace things back a few decades and pinpoint some major influences. Pain as the fifth vital sign. In an effort to standardize and improve pain treatment for patients, a national initiative called Pain as the 5th Vital Sign (P5VS) was rolled out in the late nineties. The well-meaning folks who began this initiative were trying to improve the health and well-being of the over 34 million patients in this country that suffer from chronic pain. Unfortunately, a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine in 2006 showed no improvement in pain control after this initiative. However, this practice still persists throughout medicine, despite there being little evidence to support it. One problem with assessing pain as a vital sign is, unlike blood pressure and oxygen saturation, it's completely, 100% subjective. I can't count the number of times I've had a patient tell...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news