cbaker_admin
Fri, 07/24/2020 – 16:00
An investigation by NPR reveals that health care providers continue to prescribe opioid analgesics at rates widely regarded as unsafe. Data from government studies and reports in medical literature indicate that enough prescriptions are being written annually for one-half of all Americans to have one. Jonathan Chen, MD, a physician and researcher at Stanford University Medical Center, notes: “We’re 5% of the world’s population, but we consume 80% of the world’s prescription opioids.” CDC estimates that in 2018, the last year for which complete data is available, more than 1 in 5 Americans filled an opioid analgesic prescription. That same year, roughly 40 Americans died each day after taking prescription opioids. A recent CDC study revealed that many physicians regularly ignore federal guidelines and prescribe large quantities of opioid analgesics even when better treatment options are available. For example, most experts concur that opioid analgesics are not the safest or most effective treatment for fibromyalgia, yet physicians continue to prescribe them frequently, notes CDC’s Christina Mikosz, who is studying opioid prescribing. Data released this year by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh showed as many as one-half of opioids analgesics prescribed by dentists are unnecessary and inappropriate. In many cases, insurance companies pay for opioid doses while significantly restricting coverage for non-opioid treatments, despite being safer and often more effective.
