A study of the opioid prescriptions written by almost 700,000 medical care providers shows that nearly half of the doses written in the United States originate from just 1% of those providers. The study, as reported by Reuters, shows that this top 1% writes approximately 1,000 times more opioid doses than those making up the middle percentiles.
The results have taken the authors ...
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They are some of the strongest painkillers available and were developed for use in only the most extreme of circumstances, yet opioids are prescribed at an alarming rate in the United States. Their use – and misuse – represents a major and growing safety concern and has led many medical professionals to refer to the situation surrounding opioids as an “epidemic” of abuse. The use of such ...
A recent piece of news posted to Time’s website sings the praises of recent FDA action to impose stronger labels on incredibly powerful narcotic painkillers like OxyContin. The technical name for these drugs is opioids and they have dominated medical news in recent months.
Most medical professionals in the United States will not hesitate to call the state of prescription opioid abuse in this country an ...
continue reading...In recent years, painkiller overdose and resulting fatalities have been a matter of great concern. The rate of death from painkiller use has nearly doubled in the past decade. However, in a recent article, USA Today reports of the first decrease in deaths since 1999.
The data on death by prescription painkillers shows a strong inverse correlation with deaths by heroin overdose. While the rates of prescription overdoses declined, there was a corresponding increase in heroin ...
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Abuse of painkillers has become an epidemic in America. The journal Medical Care recently released a study that found a growing number of people on disability from work were prescribed powerful prescription narcotic painkillers.
The research found that about 44 percent of people that receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits were prescribed narcotic painkillers between 2007 and 2011. The percentage of people using the drugs long-term rose from 21 percent in 2007 to 23 ...
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Amidst mounting nationwide concern over abuse of prescription drugs, the Drug Enforcement Agency (D.E.A.) has announced a new initiative to encourage the return of unused drugs to pharmacies. The new initiative seeks to reduce the quantity of prescription drugs that many consumers accumulate after they no longer need a medication.
Often times, patients are given prescriptions for more medication than necessary and thus end up with a stockpile of dangerous drugs. These drugs ...
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