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Essay On Opioid Epidemic

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In recent years, the US has seen a steady rise in the rate of opioid-related deaths. Around 33,000 people overdosed on prescription opioids and heroin in 2015 alone. That is a 200% increase in opioid related deaths since 2000, which explains why it’s called an opioid epidemic. One of the big questions is: What are the roots of the epidemic?

The Letter

The origin of the modern epidemic stretches back 1980. The New England Journal of Medicine published a short letter on narcotic addiction that year. The takeaway from the letter is that the risks of addition was low in hospitalized patients.

Over the next 37 years, that letter got cited 439 times to support the idea that opioid addiction was unlikely. The letter alone isn’t to blame. It didn’t …show more content…

That changed when lobbying efforts got the laws and guidelines changed. Doctors could start prescribing opioids for other conditions.

Prescription Upswing

Much like the letter, the change in guidelines isn’t wholly responsible for the opioid epidemic. It just gave doctors another tool for pain management. The upswing in prescriptions stems from a report in 2000 that said doctors didn’t treat patient pain properly. The report went on to recommend doctors check on patient pain at every appointment.

The problem is that the only way to assess pain is to ask patients about their pain level. If a patient says he’s in terrible pain, the doctor is encouraged to prescribe something. Opioids became the preferred kind of drug to prescribe.

The Opioid Epidemic

The epidemic didn’t happen overnight. It started with a letter based on records of patients in hospitals. The letter got used to support the idea that opioids didn’t end in addiction. This idea likely played a role in the change to opioid laws and guidelines. Those changes paired with criticism of pain management led doctors to prescribe more

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