Despite the alarming increase in US opioid overdoses, most of us would be hard pressed to describe exactly what happens in the body during one. Here's a step-by-step explainer.
This Is Exactly What Happens When You Overdose
The pain scale shares the blame for the opioid crisis in America
If you have ever had surgery or told your doctor about physical pain, no doubt you have heard the question: “How would you rate your pain on a scale of zero to 10, with zero being no pain and 10 being the worst pain you can imagine?” That sounds like a reasonable question, but everyone has a different pain tolerance. In extreme cases, there are individuals who are born with no feeling of pain at all. Therefore, one patient’s two could be another patient’s nine, and both could be telling the truth. There are no other evidence-based findings for pain, especially for patients experiencing non-cancer pain syndrome. The pain scale is a useful tool, but it is certainly not ideal and is adding to the opioid addiction crisis running rampant in our country today.
Where marijuana is legal, opioid prescriptions fall, studies find
As more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana, doctors may be replacing opioid prescriptions with suggestions to visit a local marijuana dispensary. Two papers published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine analyzing more than five years of Medicare Part D and Medicaid prescription data found that after states legalized weed, the number of opioid prescriptions and the daily dose of opioids went way down.
Where Marijuana Is Legal, Opioid Prescriptions Fall
As more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana, doctors may be replacing opioid prescriptions with suggestions to visit a local marijuana dispensary. Two papers published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine analyzing more than five years of Medicare Part D and Medicaid prescription data found that after states legalized weed, the number of opioid prescriptions and the daily dose of opioids went way down.
Drug overdoses killed more Americans last year than the Vietnam War
The opioid epidemic ravaging the United States is taking a grim and growing toll.
The latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 64,070 people died from drug overdoses in 2016. That's a 21 percent increase over the year before. Approximately three-fourths of all drug overdose deaths are now caused by opioids — a class of drugs that includes prescription painkillers as well as heroin and potent synthetic versions like fentanyl.
A new report from Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), an independent research organization that focuses on "critical issues in policing," puts those numbers into context.
According to the report, more Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016 than the number of American lives lost in the entirety of the Vietnam War, which totaled 58,200.
Trump opioid plan writes in favoritism to single company’s addiction medication
WASHINGTON — The White House’s national strategy to combat the opioid crisis, unveiled last week, would expand a particular kind of addiction treatment in federal criminal justice settings: a single drug, manufactured by a single company, with mixed views on the evidence regarding its use.