America’s Drug Death Trends Are More Complex Than The Current Narrative About Opioid Overdoses
Overdose deaths are on a sharp upward trajectory, but the roles different drugs play in that overarching epidemic has been simplified to focus on opioids. A new study reveals the depth of the crisis in America over the past four decades, and offers a grim picture of the country's future. In other drug-related news: hospitals and addiction treatment; the Trump administration's efforts to curb the epidemic; information exchanges; and more.
Los Angeles Times:
Over Four Decades, An 'Inexorable' Epidemic Of Drug Overdoses Reveals Its Inner Secrets
Americans have long construed drugs of abuse as choices. Poor choices that can cost users their lives, to be sure, but choices nonetheless. But what if drugs of abuse are more like predators atop a nationwide ecosystem of potential prey? Or like shape-shifting viruses that seek defenseless people to infect? If public health experts could detect a recognizable pattern, perhaps they could find ways to immunize the uninfected, or protect those most vulnerable to the whims of predators’ appetites. (Healy, 9/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
Cocaine, Meth, Opioids All Fuel Rise In Drug-Overdose Deaths
It isn’t just opioids behind a surge in deaths from drug overdoses in the U.S. Death rates from overdoses have been on an exponential-growth curve for nearly 40 years, involving methamphetamines, cocaine and other drugs in shifting patterns around the country and involving different age groups, a new analysis of federal data shows. When use of one drug has declined, another has moved in to fill the void, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health found in the analysis, published Thursday in the journal Science. (Ulick and McKay, 9/20)
Stateline:
Most Hospital ERs Won’t Treat Your Addiction. These Will.
Despite a raging drug overdose epidemic that is killing nearly 200 Americans every day and sending thousands more to emergency rooms, the vast majority of the nation’s more than 5,500 hospitals have so far avoided offering any form of addiction medicine to emergency patients. That’s starting to change. In [Dr. Zachary] Dezman’s ER at the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus in West Baltimore — and in 10 other Maryland hospitals — addiction services, including starting patients on the highly effective anti-addiction medication buprenorphine, is a new and growing emergency service. (Vestal, 9/21)
CQ HealthBeat:
HHS Secretary Azar Touts Administration's Anti-Opioid Efforts
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Thursday highlighted the administration’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis, as lawmakers seek to clear legislation on the issue soon. Azar noted in a roundtable with reporters that his agency announced this week that it would award more than $1 billion in previously appropriated funding to state, tribal and local governments to address addiction. Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir also emphasized the importance of a new telemedecine guidance document that would expand access to medication-assisted treatment, or MAT, through telemedicine. (Raman, 9/20)
The CT Mirror:
CT Docs Say Health Information Exchange Would Help Fight Opioid Epidemic
As Connecticut residents continue to die from opioid overdoses at an alarming rate, there is some consensus in the medical community that being able to share health records electronically across the entire state would help fight the epidemic. A system to accommodate that sharing remains elusive, however. (Rigg, 9/21)
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Gov. John Kasich Says He Won't Vote For Issue 1
Gov. John Kasich said Thursday he will vote against Issue 1, the proposed constitutional amendment that would lessen drug crime penalties if people participate in treatment.But Kasich's feelings about Issue 1 are more nuanced than other Republicans who oppose it. (Hancock, 9/20)
