Opioid Overdose Deaths Keep Rising
Prescription opioid and heroin overdose deaths hit record high
Overdose deaths from opioids — both prescription opioids and heroin — reached an all-time high in 2014, according to the CDC.
Following a relative plateau around 16,000 deaths per year, prescription opioid overdose deaths shot up 16% in 1 year to 18,893 deaths in 2014, Rose Rudd, MSPH, of the CDC, and colleagues reported in Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report.
Heroin deaths also continued to jump, reaching 10,574 that year, up from about 8,000 in 2013. The latest rate is nearly three times the heroin overdose rate in 2010, the CDC said.
HEROIN deaths increased 2574… all opiates increased 2893.. meaning prescription opiate overdoses increased 4%… Heroin increased 32%.. 56 % of all opiate deaths from ILLEGAL HEROIN
CDC director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, said in a statement that the increase is “alarming,” and he called for greater prevention, treatment, and law enforcement efforts.
The largest increase in opioid overdose deaths involved synthetic opioids such as oxycodone and hydrocodone (methadone was excluded), Rudd and colleagues said. These drugs were involved in 5,500 deaths in 2014, nearly twice as many as the year before.
And many of these overdoses are believed to involve illicitly-made fentanyl, the agency said. While it’s hard to distinguish between prescription and illicit fentanyl, reports from states and drug seizure data have shown that a substantial proportion of the increase in synthetic opioid deaths is related to wider availability of this illicit fentanyl, the agency said.
Illicit fentanyl is also combined with heroin or sold as heroin, which might be contributing to the rise in overdose deaths from heroin as well, the researchers said.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy, which held its first of several community forums on opioid misuse this week, echoed the CDC’s concern that the rise in fentanyl-related deaths comes predominantly from increases in illicitly manufactured fentanyl.
Jane Ballantyne, MD, of the University of Washington, agreed that the increase in illicit fentanyl is a contributor, as is the price drop in other illicit opioids such as black-tar heroin from Mexico.
And as physicians and public health officials have succeeded in persuading doctors to prescribe fewer opioids, those who are seeking them — particularly those already dependent on opioids — may be turning to other, more dangerous sources, Ballantyne said.
Could that be CHRONIC PAIN PTS that are DEPENDENT on opiates to help maintain some quality of life ?
“Although efforts to reduce reliance on opioids for the treatment of chronic pain did reduce abuse and death initially, that reduction is probably overwhelmed by the thousands of people who have already become dependent on opioids through pain treatment,” Ballantyne said. “Their condition is likely to worsen as they age, they will need higher doses, and if they don’t get them from doctors they will turn to illicit sources which are even more dangerous.”
Ballantyne added that the medical community should continue to recognize that opioids aren’t the solution for chronic pain, and “recognize that those already dependent on opioids need help, which probably includes opioid maintenance.”
Overall drug overdose deaths rose to 47,055 from 43,982 the year before. The majority of these deaths (61%) involved an opioid, the CDC said, and misuse of prescription opioids is the greatest predictor of heroin misuse.
Both the CDC and ONDCP called for better prevention efforts and greater access to treatment for patients with addiction, particularly medication-assisted therapy, as well as stepped-up law enforcement efforts to curb use.
Both agencies also promoted greater use of the opioid overdose reversal agent naloxone, which is now available in many forms, including an auto-injector called Evzio and an official on-label nasal spray formulation, Narcan.
Filed under: General Problems
I find it ironic that Ballentyne acknowledges that taking away opioids from chronic pain patients will result in heroin use and suicide, and yet this is still her “preferred treatment”??!!
Thank you your comments were on the money! Appreciate it!
As your body becomes accustomed to a certain dose, that dose loses some of its effectiveness which requires titration to effect. The notion that chronic pain should not be treated with opiates is preposterous. Show me another tool out there that actually has some effect on debilitating, intractable chronic pain and I’d be happy to take it. Some people are mistaken and they believe that we complain about your general aches and pains. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m talking about the type of pain that can drive even the most mentally stable person to take their life or seriously consider ending their life.
No one knows the real number but out of a hundred million people with chronic pain today even assuming 30% – 40% of those people needing opiates to lower their pain somewhat and make their life somewhat bearable will soon likely not have that option. And when they don’t have that option you will see an increased use of alcohol to try to numb their pain and/or illicit use of heroin to try to numb their pain to a more tolerable level. The baby boomers are all reaching their sixties or are already in their 60s. We have the graying of America, we have had many scientific breakthroughs that prolong life, what was the point of prolonging life if there is no life to prolong? I am couch ridden and house bound. Nobody comes to visit me anymore. Aside from my 12 year old son and the Social Security Administration, I may as well be dead. I’m not living, but I continue to breathe. I propose that researching how to prolong people’s lives only to refuse to treat any lingering chronic pain condition should be stopped and have that funding go to research on pain management and more effective treatment for the debilitating intractable pain conditions that people are left to contend with. Many of those people have no one they can call on even to drive them to a medical appointment. Why is it ethical to save a person’s life but then refuse to treat any chronic pain conditions arising from that treatment. A cancer patient is a perfect example. They may be able to put cancer into remission but it’s likely that the treatments have also caused some nerve damage and other painful conditions that need treatment so that that human being they live out the rest of their God allotted days in some comfort.
A record number of people now have diabetes. Who is wringng their hands trying to come up with a solution to this epidemic of diabetes in our country? Have they already started to prepare caloric guidelines for these people? Have they already determined what types of food should be on the plates of those who have diabetes in order to reduce or eliminate the need for insulin? And if they require ever-increasing units of insulin shall we just let them perish because we are trying to control the number of units of insulin used by Americans in any given year? Does this sound far fetched to anyone? It is a perfect analogy for what they’re trying to do to pain patients by issuing so-called guidelines for primary care physicians to follow. I could not find a primary care physician to even write a small amount of vicodin. There are not many primary care physicians that will even prescribe opiates anymore. They will refer you to a pain management Dr, or shall I say an interventional pain management doctor who wants to try and stick or spinal cords with steroids or try to chemically kill nerves suspected of causing the pain. They will do any treatment that doesn’t involve opiates. If you’ve tried everything and are at the end of the line because nothing has worked for you ( except opiates) you are deemed a failure and handed a brochure for the Rosenberg (sp) program. This nifty little program could have been written by Dr Jayne herself…… PT and OT and group meetings are offered to help you find a way to deal with your debilitating chronic pain. Anything except the medical treatment of pain which involves opiates. George Orwell, you called it about a hundred years ago.
Sorry, but I don’t believe it. Why doesn’t the CDC and the politicians that lied their campaign on the “LYME BILL” only to forget about their pre election promises. We are 2nd highest in the whole nation for LYME, with Dutchess Co being 1st. Untreated most people end-up on dissed ability. My only sister had to quit 2 jobs and nursing school. She was operated on 3 times unnecessarily as the classic “BULLSEYE doesn’t appear in most cases.
All this empty talk about prevention and timely treatment is a lie. This Government wont pay for blood to be drawn from their WAR LAB, [the most sensitive lab in the world], and no insurance I know of will pay for IGENIX in CA, [another especially sensitive lab]. If they truly were concerned with health, economics and future workers and volunteers it would be cost effective and the world would be better-off for it. But as any non rich advocate knows, at least from the long ongoing Lyme Wars, is that the truth would mean that “the war machine” would have to come clean about how this came to be. The book LAB 257 is an interesting start.
I personally believe with my whole heart that their exploitation and blurring the boundries btwn street junkies and legitimized chronic illness is a painful distraction from what they are working on now. And the same rules don’t apply. Congress, the president, the wealthy don’t have to worry about pure opiates and non-treatment even with pathetic insurance and misrepresented medications so deceitfully unrelated that the meds will kill you before the chronic illness will.
You know it’s bad when I returned an oxycodone; I was in excruciationg pain but the OXYCODONE almost caused an anueryism. The pharmacist who I once liked, didn’t care when I called him for almost 2 days. Knowing I was going to die AND I could not take this Substituted For, I , knowing I am being monitored and recorded all the time said ” let me get this straight, I have complained of emergency reactions for 2 days. You have other OXYCODONES in the store but you wont switch them out for another brand, and you admit you don’t know whats in the meds ? He suddenly had a change of heart because he owed me 50. He said I will switch it this time but don’t ever ask me again. The pharmacists are NOT ALLOWED to know whats in the drugs labeled OXYCODONE, ADDERALL, ……..I researched where they’re putting in BLOOD PRODUCT, Heavy Metals, radio-active substances…..
Because I wrote letters up the chain of command in NYS as to the fraudulant, toxic and misrepresented ADHD meds, I was cut-off from trying another adhd med eben though my primary dx is ADHD. People need to write letters and make public their experiences as it gives credibility for the rest of us -somme too sick to hold a pen or speak..
Learning to live with pain is part of all our lives.
Dealing with the pain is the challenge in our lives.
Our condition determines the type and amount of medication we take.
Some of us can no longer exercise anymore, some of us have tried steroids with no help or actually hurting ourselves more.
Every single chronic pain case is different and that’s why we go to physicians, to help us. If steroids and exercise helps you then by all means use that form of treatment. But remember, not everyone can be helped with this form of treatment, as a matter of fact, some people are suffering more now because of steroid injections. Just remember, injections into your spine is dangerous. It only takes a slight miss calculation by the physician, just a needle prick to your spinal cord and your pain can get a lot worse.
I’ve been a chronic pain sufferer and pain management patient for almost 10 years now. When I first started taking opiates for pain, I started on very low doses and only took as I needed(less than prescribed). Now my dose has has more than quadrupled and I need to take it more frequently( because of an error while receiving injections). I have never, in 10 years exceeded what was prescribed to me by my doctors and I never will. That’s why there are instructions on the label so even the morally challenged will know that there are dangers. I am responsible with my medications and keep very close track of them so I don’t accidently take too much.
I hate having to take opioid pain medication, I hate having to take any medications, but I haven’t found a way, and neither have my doctors to relieve the pain and the stress without the use of them. If that categorizes me as having a dependency, then so be it but don’t categorize me as an addict.
As far as I’m concerned, each and every case can not be just tossed in to a general category and anyone who thinks it can is an idiot.
One thing that really pisses me off about this article is that there is absolutely no separation of difference between legally prescribed Fentanyl and Black Tar Heroin use. Jane Ballantyne, MD, is an idiot and is presenting fictional facts to make all opioid users look like heroin addicts.
I disagree with the premise that as you age you need more. My doctor I have had for over 5 years actually lowered my dose after 7 years of opiod use before him. He lowered my very high dose by 40 percent but introduced hormone and cortico steriods as well as a few other non pain meds and exercise and diet as well as holistic meds and I have never been in better shape physically as well as pain is in check as long as I follow the regime. Don’t get wrong Im still in pain but its handle-able. Its all about the doctor and how he or she approaches your issues.You don’t just keep taking more and more. That is a no win situation. Especially in this IGNORANT CLIMATE!
Im 55 and swim 100 laps a day. The pool is my best friend!