The opioid epidemic has long been a challenging issue both for Americans and the healthcare system that treats them, and the mortality statistics are significant. The American Academy of Family Physicians published research this year showing that, if there’s no change in the annual incidence of prescription opioid misuse, annual opioid deaths could hit 82,000… Read More »
The opioid crisis is at the center of a national disparity in how the public views and responds to drug addiction, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine. The health care community funnels too many drugs to low-income white patients, triggering addiction, while people of color who… Read More »
(Reuters Health) – Researchers are reporting a link between doctor-targeted marketing of opioid products and the increase in U.S. deaths from overdoses. In a county-by-county analysis, they found that when drug companies increased their opioid marketing budgets by just $ 5.29 per 1,000 population, the number of opioid prescriptions written by doctors went up by… Read More »
Editorial writers weigh in on these and other health care topics. The Washington Post: This Is Why The Federal Government Has A Hard Time Regulating Prescription Opioids This past week, President Trump argued on national television that to end the opioid epidemic, Congress needed to fund the building of a wall at the United States’… Read More »
GAZETTE: Do you see the overdose epidemic continuing? McHUGH: It’s hard to say. Unfortunately, last year’s increase of 9.6 percent suggests that the efforts that are now ongoing — and there’s quite a bit of attention on this — are not sufficient. A big part is access to fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, which are extremely potent opioids.… Read More »