The Epidemic

In February 2016 the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a special report in The New England Journal of Medicine alerting the Medical Community , including providers ,policy makers , and drug manufacturers about the growing epidemic of opioid abuse, addiction and overdose (Value based Care,2016). An epidemic directly related to the increasing widespread use of powerful opioid pain medications (Goodman, 2016). Opioid or prescription drug misuse is growing concern to public health professionals ; nearly 2.4 million people in the United States currently struggle with a  SUD  substance use disorder directly related to prescription drug ,  approximatly half a million people have an SUD related to heroin (SAMSHA,2016). The U.S Food and Drug administration has approved three different medications to treat opioid addiction (1) Methadone , (2) Naloxone , and (3) Buprenorphine . Research shows  that a combination of medication and psychosocial therapy is often the most successful approach in treating opioid addiction, how ever Naloxone is essentially an  antidote that is administered during an overdose to prevent cardiopulmonary injury during an overdose and is contraindicated n people who are recieving Methadone therapy . In addition Naloxone has side affects and are to be administered by trained personell .  Prevalence of opioid abuse are higher among women ; individuals aged 60 to 69 and in those who rate their health as poor , as well as those individuals who have been hospitalized during the last year.  Estimates of the prevalence of persons who suffer from chronic pain are currently between 39 million and 100 million people a very large at risk cohort in  addressing the issue , but its more complex than that because chronic pain are influenced by culture , past experience with pain , socio ecoomic status and cognition . These factors affect the way in which pain is percieved and affect  the identification of addictive behavior ; particularly in the aging who have a decreased neurological function related to an aging physiological status . In addition to this over 70 % of all prescription pain killers are dispenced to the elderly , in  fact in the year 2016 over 254 million pain medication prescriptions  were dispenced making this public health issue all the more pressing.



References

Goodman, A(2016) Provider Education the Key to Preventing the Growing Epidemic of Misuse and Abuse in Opioid Prescription for Chronic Pain , the FDA Enphasises. Pain Management Value Based Rheumatology vol5 no 3

SAMSA (2016) The CBHSQ Report . Retrieved from http://www.samsha.gov/data/sites/default/filesreport_2117/shortreport-2117.pdf