Assessing the Opioid Crisis in the United States

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Assessing the Opioid Crisis in the United States

How widespread is opioid crisis this crisis?

The opioid crisis is widespread across the whole country. While some states have a higher prevalence of opioid-involved death rates than the national average, the overall outlook of the opioid overdose crisis indicates a federal public health problem. According to Deaton (2017), the opioids crisis is a result of widespread misuse and addiction to opioids. The commonly abused opioids are grouped into three categories namely synthetic opioids, heroin, and prescription pain relievers. The effects of opioids overdose implicate the crisis as responsible for 128 deaths on any given day in the United States. National Institute on Drug Abuse (2020b) stated that the foundation of the opioid crisis is the abuse of prescribed opioids for chronic pain, which represent more than 29% of the opioids-related deaths. In perspective, misuse of prescription opioids is positively correlated with the likability of an individual dying due to opioid overdose. An approximated 40% of opioid overdose deaths involved prescription opioids while the rest involved synthetic opioids and heroin. Deaton (2017) reported that the opioid overdose crisis cost the economy more than $80 billion in 2018, including healthcare costs, criminal justice involvement, and treatment and therapy costs. Furthermore, the U.S. records more than 47, 000 deaths as a result of an opioid overdose, 1.7 million cases of substance use disorders related to opioids, and approximately 650,000 cases of heroin use disorder (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2020b).

What are the national statistics on opioid use?

According to National Institute on Drug Abuse (2020b), more than 750,000 people have died in the past ten years due to the drug overdose in which an approximated 75% of the deaths involved opioid abuse. Opioid-involved death rates decreased in the past three years due to the implementation of various public health strategies aimed at tackling the opioid crisis. The misuse of prescription opioids represents the major cause of the opioid crisis. While prescription opioids are used to treat chronic and acute pain, a significant number of Americans end up suffering from opioid use disorder because of addiction. The opioids accountable for both fatal and nonfatal overdoes include natural opioids, methadone, tramadol, fentanyl, and heroin. Saloner et al. (2018) state that the rate of opioid-related hospitalization has decreased in the past three years and the effectiveness of naloxone indicates a positive impact in reversing opioid overdose. In 2018, more than 10 million people misused opioids in which the majority of the cases related to the misuse of prescription pain relievers. Currently, synthetic opioids represent the trending cause of opioid overdose deaths. Saloner et al. (2018) found that the opioid crisis is more prevalent in urbanized states than in rural communities due to the implications of social, economic, and racial aspects depicted in national data of opioid-related health issues.

Using research data, determine the states and populations most affected and the reasons for the rise of this crisis.

As per 2018 data on state opioid-involved overdose death rates and opioid prescribing levels, the federal age-adjusted overdose death rate was 20 per 100,00 individuals. The most affected states included “West Virginia (51.5 per 100,000), Delaware (43.8 per 100,000), Maryland (37.2 per 100,000), Pennsylvania (36.1 per 100,000), Ohio (35.9 per 100,000), and New Hampshire (35.8 per 100,000)” (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2020b). Out of 67,367 drug overdose deaths, approximately 70% of the deaths involved opioid overdose. In all the most affected States, opioid overdose-related deaths indicate that synthetic opioids, including fentanyl and methadone, and heroin remained steady. While deaths involving prescription opioids decreased the most affected States, the opioid prescription rates remained disproportionally high- at 70 opioid prescriptions for every 100 persons. According to Wickramatilake et al. (2017), white non-Hispanic represent the biggest population affected by the opioid crisis, representing 76% of the total opioid-involved deaths. The only exception is the District of Columbia in which African Americans account for approximated 90% of the opioid-involved deaths. However, it is important to consider the demographics of the District of Columbia, which is a predominantly African American community. Sohn et al. (2019) stated that the recent rise in fatal and nonfatal opioid overdose indicates the increased availability of illegal opioids such as heroin, fentanyl, and methadone. Importantly, the increased use of legally prescribed and illegally produced fentanyl contributes to the rise of opioid-involved deaths.

How does the national data on opioid use compare to data from New York City?

The data from New York City indicate stark differences in comparison to the national data. Sade (2020) stated that New York City posted higher numbers of opioid overdose deaths for African Americans and Latinx Americans, compared to any other city in the U.S. Unlike the States with similar opioid-death rate and opioid prescriptions, New York City’s data is the opposite of the national data. Platt & Raedle (2017) found that overdose-related deaths in New York City represent a steady increase of the African Americans and Latin Americans abusing prescription opioids and heroin. Also, opioid deaths involving opioids and opioid-related hospitalization increased in the past two years, hence setting a different trend in contrast to the national data. Since 2015, opioid-involved deaths have increased from a rate of 11.0 to 15.1 in 2018 due to the increased availability of synthetic opioids and heroin in the illegal drug market. Sade (2020) found that the increasing opioid-involved deaths of African Americans and Latinos indicate the impact of poverty, unemployment, history of substance abuse, and young age. The data from New York reflect the counter-indications of strategies to address issues of opioid subscriptions as people turn to illegal opioids and more harmful drugs such as fentanyl.

If there are any differences, what can they be attributed to?

There are differences in terms of the racial elements of the data and the trends in terms of the increasing cases of fatal opioid overdoses, opioid-related hospitalization, and availability of synthetic opioids. Unintentional drug overdose deaths have climbed to record high levels, claiming approximately 70,000 lives in the United States in 2017 alone (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2020a). The emergence of illicitly manufactured fentanyl. Since 2013, illicitly manufactured fentanyl has been involved in a growing number of overdose deaths nationally and NYC and has been represented increasingly in seizures of synthetic opioids (Platt & Raedle, 2017). The increased presence of fentanyl in the illicit drug market has implications for overdose prevention efforts; however, national reporting on the presence of fentanyl in overdose deaths is limited by the lack of standardized toxicology testing for fentanyl. In 2017 in New York City, opioid overdose-related death rates for black and Latino people were highest in middle-aged and older adults, and in white people, these rates were highest in young and middle-aged adults (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2020a). History of criminal activity or legal problems, Regular contact with high-risk environments, Risk-taking or thrill-seeking behavior, tobacco use, severe depression or anxiety, and stressful circumstances. Feinberg (2019) stated that sociocultural factors, unemployment among young and senior citizens, lack of education, and a high rate of prescribing of opioids, and high rate of dispensing of prescription opioids account for the increasing opioid-related deaths in New York City.

Based on your understanding thus far, what could have attributed to the rise of opioid addiction in Anytown?

The opioid crisis is the rising tide of drug addiction in America and represent a major public health care issue. Opioids have gotten broadly accessible, either by illegal opioid prescriptions or by illegally sold opioids, and this expanding accessibility is adding to an acceleration in the number of individuals who become dependent on opioids. Opioid users resort to opioids that are exceptionally powerful and suit to replace legally prescribed opioids, especially heroin and synthetic opioids (Deaton, 2017). High-potency opioids are probably the most addictive medications on the planet and lead to opioid addiction disorder in the long-term. They are flooding the market and individuals are overdosing on them at record levels. Study results show that ongoing increments in drug addiction related black market trade driven by illegal, synthetic opioids in bigger cities and accessibility of opioids as a result of e-commerce outcomes. Importantly, the over-prescription of pain management drugs, yet note that it has escalated as of late with a flood of modest heroin and engineered opioids, for example, fentanyl (Liu et al., 2019). Furthermore, women are more likely than men to experience chronic pain, forced to use opioids as interventions, and get addicted to the opioids. Contrasted and men, women are likewise bound to be recommended drug addiction prescriptions, to be given higher portions, and to utilize opioids for longer periods. In so doing, Women may have general inclinations to get subject to remedy pain relievers more rapidly than are men. In summary, socioeconomic factors and increased availability of illegal opioid prescriptions and synthetic opioids worsen the opioid crisis.

References

Deaton, A. (2017). Economic Aspects of the Opioid Crisis: Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress.”. In Economic Aspects of the Opioid Crisis: Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress.

Feinberg, J. (2019). Tackle the epidemic, not the opioids. Nature, 573(7773), 165.

Liu, J., Li, S., Wang, H., Ma, L., & Zhang, Y. (2019). Analysis and Countermeasures of the Opioid Crisis in the United States. Frontiers in Medical Science Research, 1(2).

National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2020a). New York: Opioid-Involved Deaths and Related Harms. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/opioids/opioid-summaries-by-state/new-york-opioid-involved-deaths-related-harms

National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2020b). Opioids Trends & Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/opioids/opioids-trends-statistics

Platt, S., & Raedle, J. (2017). The opioid crisis in the USA: a public health emergency. Lancet, 390(10107), 2016.

Sade, R. M. (2020). Introduction: Opioid Controversies: The Crisis—Causes and Solutions. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 48(2), 238-240.

Saloner, B., McGinty, E. E., Beletsky, L., Bluthenthal, R., Beyrer, C., Botticelli, M., & Sherman, S. G. (2018). A public health strategy for the opioid crisis. Public Health Reports, 133(1_suppl), 24S-34S.

Sohn, D., Ring, D., Toy, K. A., Julian, J. A., & Arnstein, P. (2019). Pain Relief and the Opioid Crisis in the United States and Canada. Instructional course lectures, 68, 639-646.

Wickramatilake, S., Zur, J., Mulvaney-Day, N., Klimo, M. C. V., Selmi, E., & Harwood, H. (2017). How states are tackling the opioid crisis. Public Health Reports, 132(2), 171-179.