Anyone who has been paying attention to the news and medical reports would know that there has been a major crisis in the use of opioids and deaths from the overdose of opioids. Sadly, there has been a huge increase in both the use and overdose of opioids in our country in the last 15 years. This increase includes the use of illicit and prescription opioids. To give you an idea of how serious this crisis is, allow me to give you a fact from a report. It has been reported that in 2017, the number of deaths that were a direct result of opioid overdose was 68,400! Do you realize that this figure is much higher than the yearly average of deaths of those who died at the peak of the AIDS crisis?
However, there is a way of lessening the impact of this crisis on our country and its citizens. Research that has been conducted by an individual named Angela Russolillo, indicates that if we were to increase the number of individuals dependent upon opioids, who receive medication-assisted treatment. Medication-assisted treatment is the administration of medication, such as Methadone, to these individuals. There was a study conducted in British Columbia that used this very method of treatment. The results from that study confirmed that this kind of treatment did reduce the number of opioid-related deaths greatly.
It may appear that you are substituting one drug for another. However, medication-assisted treatment works in a step-down fashion. The individual that is receiving the Methadone starts on a particular dosage. After some time, the individual’s dosage is reduced. The individual is re-evaluated, some time later, once again reducing their dosage. This continues until the individual is no longer receiving the medication.
With the availability of Narcan, this does provide a way to help combat the crisis. However, a large portion of opioid users don’t have anyone with them during an overdose. So, just having Narcan available isn’t enough. I believe that utilizing medication-assisted treatment can slow the crisis, along with the use of Narcan.
Hall, W. D., & Farrell, M. (2018). Reducing the opioid overdose death toll in North America. PLOS Medicine, 15(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002626
Yorumlar