Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Ohio's Opioid Crisis: 'If It Can Happen Here ... It Can Happen Anywhere'
The Associated Press: Village Police Chief In Spotlight Of Ohio's Heroin Battle
The veteran police chief in a bucolic Ohio village, where the last murder was two decades ago and he can just about count the number of drug cases on both hands, finds himself in the spotlight on the front lines against heroin overdoses in one of the nation's hardest-hit states. Thomas Synan Jr., of Newtown, with some 2,700 people tucked among suburban cities and townships just east of Cincinnati, has led the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition task force during a stunning spike of overdoses that saw 174 reported in one six-day period last month. He has also publicly challenged Ohio's governor to do more to help an area that's "bleeding profusely." (Sewell, 9/18)
Columbus Dispatch: Ohio At Epicenter Of Heroin Epidemic Killing Thousands
Every day, 78 people in the United States die from an opiate overdose — 29 of them from heroin, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's more than 10,500 deaths a year attributed to heroin and more than 28,000 deaths from opiate overdoses. The number of fatal overdoses in Ohio that involve heroin has soared from 87 in 2003 to 1,424 last year. It was a factor in 47 percent of all fatal overdoses, higher than any other drug. (Viviano, 9/18)
Columbus Dispatch: Hospitals Try To Heal, Soothe Growing Number Of Babies With Drug Dependency
Between 2004 and 2014, nearly 3,900 infants statewide were found to have been exposed to heroin or other opioids, either during pregnancy or through breast milk, according to the most recent data from the Ohio Department of Health. Hospitalizations for opioid exposure in infants jumped 1,427 percent during that time, from 63 in 2004 to 962 by 2014. Many are born dependent and need extended treatment to help wean them from the drugs; a few are harmed later when the adults around them abuse heroin or opioid pain medications. (Price, 9/19)
Columbus Dispatch: Parents’ Addictions Put Too Many Kids In Foster Care
After a decade of steeply declining foster-care rates, Ohio now has about 14,000 children in agency custody. That's an increase of nearly 13 percent since the end of 2012, and it doesn't include the likely faster-growing number of kids taken in by relatives. Some hard-hit counties report that more children are being adopted than reunited with their parents. And the state's hospitalization rate for neonatal abstinence syndrome — a set of symptoms suffered by infants born dependent on drugs — has soared from 14 for every 10,000 live births in 2004 to 134 per 10,000 by 2014. (Price, 9/19)
Columbus Dispatch: Opiates Make The Brain Think It Can’t Survive Without Them
Many heroin addicts graduate to the drug after taking opiate-based medications prescribed for pain or sold on the street. These drugs can change the way nerve cells work in the brain in a relatively short period of time, creating an unprecedented craving. The brain is chemically set up to maximize one's ability to function in society, but adding a drug into the mix changes the brain and the user's reality, said Brad Lander, clinical director of addiction medicine at Talbot Hall at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. (Viviano, 9/18)
Meanwhile, other media outlets offer coverage of the crisis out of Tennessee, New York and Virginia —
Nashville Tennessean: There Are More Opioid Prescriptions Than People In Tennessee
Health care professionals in Tennessee last year wrote more than 7.8 million opioid prescriptions — or 1.18 for every man, woman and child — even as the state grapples with a scourge of painkiller addiction and abuse.The total places Tennessee second in the nation, behind only Alabama in prescriptions of the drugs, according to IMS Health data. Even though the number of scripts has fallen by 724,070 since 2013 when there were over 8.5 million total prescriptions, the state remains ensconced as a leader in prescribing oxycodone, hydrocodone and Percocet. (Fletcher, 9/19)
The Associated Press: NY Lower Than Most States In Rate Of Opioid Prescriptions
New York ranked fourth among states whose lawmakers drew the most contributions from the opioid industry but was near the bottom in prescriptions per capita, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity. Lobbyists for a loosely affiliated group of drugmakers and nonprofits in the Pain Care Forum show they had 206 registered lobbyists in Albany last year, donating $288,500 to state candidates and committees last year, and $3.7 million over the past decade. (9/18)
Richmond Times-Dispatch: In Virginia, Teens Account For Small Amount Of Fatal Overdoses; Majority Are Younger Adults
Even when including overdoses on popular benzodiazepines such as Xanax or Valium alongside opioids, people younger than 20 made up about 2 percent of overdose deaths from the drugs from 2007 to 2014, according to data from the state medical examiner’s office. Although those numbers may seem encouraging, the ones that follow are not: Adults ages 25 to 44 accounted for more than half of all deaths during that time frame — in large part casualties of the intersection between genetic predisposition to substance abuse and the widespread availability of prescription painkillers, treatment experts say. (Evans, 9/18)
