“In a sign that the U.S. opioid epidemic is still not under control, a new report shows that prescriptions for the highly addictive painkillers haven’t declined in the last decade.
After peaking in 2012-2013, opioid use and doses leveled off. But doses were still higher in 2017 than in 2007, and opioid use was particularly high among older patients suffering chronic pain, researchers found.
Prescribing of opioids remains high largely because of a medical culture that evolved over many years, said study lead researcher Molly Moore Jeffery, a health economist at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn.
“Doctors say: ‘When I see someone with this type of pain, I write a prescription for 30 tabs,’ ” she said. This has resulted in Americans using more prescription opioids than anyone else in the world, Jeffery added.”
Read more at: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/news/20180801/as-opioid-epidemic-rages-painkiller-prescriptions-dont-drop#1
Source: WebMd.com – August 1, 2018
