{"id":2101,"date":"2017-06-20T19:10:29","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T23:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.singlecare.com\/blog\/?p=2101"},"modified":"2020-07-17T14:01:43","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T18:01:43","slug":"opioid-epidemic-statistics-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.singlecare.com\/blog\/news\/opioid-epidemic-statistics-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting the opioid epidemic in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Prescription opioids<\/span><\/a> were originally prescribed for acute, short-term pain. In the 1990s, physicians broadened the use from short-term pain to chronic long-term pain because the medical community reassured patients that opioid pain relievers would not lead to addiction; thus leading to more opioids being prescribed by healthcare providers. Since then, the number of overdose deaths related to opioid misuse has quadrupled. The <\/span>Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/span><\/a> estimates that the economic burden of opioid misuse in the United States alone is $78.5 billion per year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The emergence of the opioid epidemic<\/span><\/h2>\n

Opioid prescription numbers have increased in alarming rates in the past few decades. <\/span>Between 1991 and 2011<\/span><\/a>, the number of opioid prescriptions (selling under brand names like Vicodin, Oxycontin, and Percocet) supplied by U.S. retail pharmacies increased from 76 million to 219 million. Additionally, opioid medications have become more potent as demand has increased. Morphine used to be the strongest painkiller available for patients but alternative medications, many of them stronger, have become available\u2014such as fentanyl and Dilaudid. In 2012, <\/span>one in three opioid prescriptions prescribed to patients<\/span><\/a> were stronger than morphine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Opioid abuse<\/span><\/a> is commonly perceived as the purchase of opioids on the black market or sold on the streets, but statistics show that Americans over 50 years of age are using opioids in high numbers and many of them are becoming addicted. <\/span>Nearly 12 million<\/span><\/a> Medicare patients were prescribed opioids painkillers in 2015. That same year, 2.7 million Americans abused their prescribed painkillers by taking them for reasons, or in amounts, beyond what they were intended to treat. Hospitalization in patients 65 years of age and older due to opioid abuse has increased fivefold over the past two decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

As states and pharmaceutical companies alike have taken efforts to curb opioid abuse, opioids have become more difficult to abuse. An unintended consequence of this has been an increase in heroin use. It is estimated that <\/span>80% of heroin users<\/span><\/a> become addicted to prescription pain medications first. Heroin is also much more affordable than prescription pain medications, costing around $50 for multiple doses compared to $100 for a single dose of OxyContin 80 mg. This has led to a significant increase in heroin use and consequently, a significant increase in opioid and synthetic opioid-related deaths.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are three main <\/span>waves of the opioid crisis<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n