Opioid Drug Prescriptions Drop, Finally
Latest medical data report from information firm IMS Health now suggests that prescriptions for opioids have declined for the first time in 20 years. The drop is likely the result of an increasing awareness regarding the risks and dangers posed by these drugs. Unfortunately, the decrease in opioid prescriptions also resulted to an unforeseen rising demand for alternative medications often leading to a spike in fatal overdoses recently.
"The urgency of the epidemic, its devastating consequences, demands interventions that in some instances may make it harder for some patients to get their medication," said Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse as quoted in a report by New York Times.
"We need to set up a system to make sure they are covered. But we cannot continue the prescription practice of opioids the way we have been. We just can't."
According to IMS Health there is a 12% drop in opioid prescriptions beginning 2012 while Symphony Health Solutions, another medical data firm, finds an 18% decline in that same time, Christian Science Monitor reported. While prescriptions for opioid decreased, a separate research seemed to have observed an 8.5% spike in medical spending on prescription drugs that serve as opioid alternatives like gabapentin.
"When I was a resident, treating patients' pain as a vital sign was assumed," said Dr. Branson Page of Granville Medical Center as quoted by Medical Daily. "Now, more of us are aware that even prescribing a small number of opioids to a patient who's never taken them before is rolling the dice on whether that patient will become addicted."
What is more disturbing is the growing fact that despite the drop in opioid prescriptions, fatal overdoses from other prescription painkillers have inversely risen often resulting to deaths. In 2014 alone, nearly 30, 000 people have died from prescription drugs with 19, 000 of the deaths attributed to opioids. In addition, there are reports suggesting that opioid addicts who are having difficulty obtaining prescription painkillers have turned to more dangerous street drugs like heroin for stronger effect with less difficulty to acquire.
The recently published report by IMS Health will be presented at the 21st Annual International Meeting of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) from May 21 to 25.
