What Is The Opioid Crisis?

What Is The Opioid Crisis? The opioid crisis is known as the health crisis surrounding prescription, and nonprescription, opioid drugs. The overdose and death rates of opioids are climbing exponentially and the use of the drug is more rampant now than ever. How Did the Opioid Crisis Begin? In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. Before long, this lead to the medications becoming misused and it became apparent that these medications were indeed highly addictive. However, because of how lucrative prescribing the drug is for both healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical industry, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to prevent unnecessary prescribing of the drugs. As such, opioid overdose and addiction rates began to increase. Due to the high cost of prescription medication, people began turning to street opioids, such as heroin, in order to get their fix at a cheaper cost. Opioid Crisis Statistics Roughly 21 to 29 percent of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them. Over 130 people die every day from an opioid-related drug overdose 10.3 million people misused opioid drugs in 2018 Nearly 80% of heroin users started with prescription opioids About 10 percent of people prescribed opioids developed depression after a month of taking the drugs How Can We Stop the Opioid Crisis?...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: Addiction Addiction to Pharmaceuticals Heroin Addiction Recovery opioid opioid crisis opioids pharmaceutical addiction pharmaceutical drug abuse treatment pharmacists Source Type: blogs