Opioid Prescriptions Drop for Three Years in a Row

For the first time in decades, the number of opioid prescriptions in the United States is starting to fall, according to a recent report by the New York Times based on data from IMS Health For each of the past three years – 2013, 2014, and 2015 – prescriptions for opioids have declined. This marks the first sustained drop since OxyContin hit the market in 1996. Some experts believe that the drop is an early signal that the long-running and often-discussed opioid epidemic may have reached its peak and that doctors and prescribers have begun to heed the warnings about the highly addictive nature of the drugs. It's also possible that state and federal legislation and efforts to curb the epidemic are having an effect. According to Dr. Bruce Psaty, a researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle who studies drug safety, "[t]he culture is changing. We are on the downside of a curve with opioid prescribing now." However, the rate of fewer prescriptions has not yet led to fewer deaths – fatal overdoses from opioids have continued to rise. In 2014 alone, more than 28,000 lives were lost from opioids, including prescription painkillers (Percocet, Vicodin, OxyContin) and illegal opioids, such as heroin. Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, believes that "[t]he urgency of the epidemic, its devastating consequences, demands interventions that in some instances may make it harder for some patients to get their medication. We need to s...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs