OPIATES

STATISTICS & TRENDS

One Percent of Doctors Responsible for 25 Percent of Opiate Prescriptions

Overprescribing of opioid pain relievers is a serious issue. However, it's a relatively small group of physicians that are culpable in this. The majority of doctors are doing their best to treat their patients properly. It's just a few of them that are...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Opiate Addiction Surges in Suburban America

It's no mystery that drug and alcohol addiction statistics surged through the first two decades of the 21st-century. As the drug problem grew (mainly involving opiates), it began to affect demographics that previously had very minimal interactions with...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Addiction in the Nation’s Capital

If there is one lesson the drug addiction epidemic of the 21st-century has taught us, it's that substance abuse can touch down anywhere.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Ohio Among Top Four States for Opioid-Related Addictions and Death

We’re a long ways away from being “out of the woods“ when it comes to the opiate epidemic. In states like Ohio, the state with the highest number of opiate deaths in the nation, much work is left to do to combat the harmful effects of opioid addiction.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Opiates? Hospitals Now Changing Their Approach

One of my colleagues is a veteran nurse who works in a hospital in Baton Rouge. He was born and raised in a sparsely populated, underserved area of Louisiana which is now being devastated by the opioid epidemic...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Childhood Exposure to Opiates – A Potentially Lethal Crisis for Parents

The opiate epidemic has rocked America and brought on one of the worst national public health emergencies of our time. This crisis has also brought with it a range of unpleasant consequences. New study findings suggest that young people are being taken...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Why is the Northeast Hit Hardest by Opiate Deaths?

It is no mystery that the United States is struggling with a drug addiction crisis. In October of 2017, the opioid epidemic alone (just one facet of America's addiction problem) was declared a Public Health Emergency. Drug addiction has spread across the...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Drug Deaths, Suicide, and a Three-Year Drop in Life Expectancy - What Does It Mean?

One of the most telling indicators of the overall health of a nation’s population is its life expectancy. When a population’s life expectancy improves, this is a sign of overall improvement for that country. When a country’s life expectancy falls,...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Might Doctors Refocus Post-Operation Opioid Prescribing?

Opioid addiction is the most discussed, most concerning, and most lethal drug addiction problem in the United States today. News of opioid dependence hits media headlines weekly. It is a national public health emergency that threatens the very viability...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The True Cost of Addiction—Sex, Money and Corruption

60 medical experts are currently under federal charges for doling out highly addictive and potentially lethal opioid pharmaceuticals for money or sexual favors from addicts, or for cash incentives from crooked pharmacies.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Opioid Pain Reliever Drugs Changed the Drug Addiction Scene

When we work to address the current drug addiction epidemic that has swept our country, we must accept a universal truth. The truth is that the mass introduction of opioid pharmaceuticals (and other addictive pharmaceuticals, for that matter) onto the...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Opioid Update

Just about every day when I turn on the news, I see some update or media clip regarding the opioid addiction epidemic. Everywhere we look, opioid addiction disrupts our civilization and stains our communities with its toxic hold on millions of Americans....

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Increase in Pet Painkiller Prescriptions Could Indicate More Owner Misuse

Because of a significant increase in painkiller prescriptions to pet owners, veterinarians are being warned to watch for some owners who might be consuming these drugs instead of giving them to their pets.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Dental Painkillers, Young Patients and Addiction

New research indicates that, when a dentist prescribes opioid painkillers to teens and young adults following wisdom teeth surgery, they are also putting those same teens and young adults at risk for addiction.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Dentists: An Unexpected Source of Opioid Misuse and Addiction

Let’s imagine for a moment that you are the parent of a teenage or young adult child. You’re told by your child’s dentist that his (or her) wisdom teeth are going to be a problem and they need to be removed. Dutifully, you make one or more appointments...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The CDC on Ethical Prescribing—How We are Going to Lower the Overprescribing of Opioid Drugs

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, more than eleven million, five-hundred thousand people misused opioid prescription pain reliever medications in 2016.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Hospitals Might Prevent Patients from Becoming Addicts

Let’s take a moment, let’s gird our loins, and let’s talk about something that many of us probably don’t even want to think about, much less discuss.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Drug Trafficking from China—A New Look at a New Drug Threat

The American people face a new threat in the drug scene, yet another development in the constantly growing and expanding drug problem of the 21st-century. After decades of contending with illegal drug trafficking from Mexico and other South and Central...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Adolescent Drug Overdoses Back on the Rise—Addressing a Growing Problem

There’s been a significant climb in drug overdoses amongst people under the age of eighteen. This has cropped up just in the last few years.