Opioid Crisis Research Wall by LUCRECIA BABATZ (Student) https://padlet.com/babatzl/3z1nu4cjcv1u Made to record my research and sources. Here I will take notes and record my findings. en-us 2019-04-29 15:03:32 UTC 2019-05-06 15:30:40 UTC hello@padlet.com Government website - Prescription problem, statistics babatzl https://padlet.com/babatzl/3z1nu4cjcv1u/wish/355052928 In the late 1990s pharmaceutical companies reassured medicine community that opioid pain relievers were not addictive so they began prescribing them at much higher rates. 

From a national survey:

  • From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people have died from a drug overdose.
  • Around 68% of the more than 70,200 drug overdose deaths in 2017 involved an opioid.
  • In 2017, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and illegal opioids like heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl) was 6 times higher than in 1999.
  • On average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose
  • 886,000 people use heroin 
  • 11.4 million people misused prescription opioids 
  • 2.1 million people had an opioid use disorder


"Increased prescription of opioid medications led to widespread misuse of both prescription and non-prescription opioids before it came clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive"
]]> 2019-04-29 15:09:37 UTC https://padlet.com/babatzl/3z1nu4cjcv1u/wish/355052928 Overview of opioid epidemic // some government solutions babatzl https://padlet.com/babatzl/3z1nu4cjcv1u/wish/355053970 The death rate from opioid drug overdose in the US has nearly doubled between 2013 and 2014

"Together with heroin, synthetic opioids are the main substance of abuse behind the US epidemic. The drugs are highly addictive owing to their actions at opioid receptors in the brain" 

In response to the epidemic, public health officials have restricted opioid prescribing due to the adverse health effects and later addictions of substances. 

They also increased access to naloxone, a drug that reverses opioid overdose and implemented systems to facilitate identification of individuals at increased risk of opioid abuse. ]]> 2019-04-29 15:11:36 UTC https://padlet.com/babatzl/3z1nu4cjcv1u/wish/355053970 Social and economic determinants of opioid crisis babatzl https://padlet.com/babatzl/3z1nu4cjcv1u/wish/355053991 "The accepted wisdom about the US overdose crisis singles out prescribing as the causative vector. Although drug supply is a key factor, we posit that the crisis is fundamentally fueled by economic and social upheaval, its etiology closely linked to the role of opioids as a refuge from physical and psychological trauma, concentrated disadvantage, isolation, and hopelessness".

In order to fix the opioid crisis, solutions need to focus on real root causes and not only the prescriptions problem. Rates of drug use have not decreased as much as prescriptions, so there are greater issues that cause addiction. 

"One powerful line of structural analysis focuses on “diseases of despair”[...] The trend is especially pronounced among middle-aged Whites without a college degree, who are now dying earlier on average than did their parents"

There is a vicious cycle of using drugs and then being introduced in an environment that makes people more prone to use them: "Having a public record because of a drug conviction limits one’s ability to obtain meaningful employment, reinforcing the penury that drove problematic drug use in the first place"


]]> 2019-04-29 15:11:37 UTC https://padlet.com/babatzl/3z1nu4cjcv1u/wish/355053991 Causes of addiction. babatzl https://padlet.com/babatzl/3z1nu4cjcv1u/wish/356238076 Most people think of addiction only as a chemical reaction of the body that creates a dependence on certain substances. Although there is some truth to this, there are other emotional factors related to addiction. 

Johann Hari traveled around the world talking to different people and scholars about drugs and addiction and found evidence that showed the psychological and emotional causes of addiction. He found a rat study made by a university professor in Vancouver that analyzed the consumption of "drug water" in different environments. In one cage, there was one rat with no entertainment, and in this case the rat always chose the drug water over the regular water. Then, in another cage he created a "rat paradise" with many rat friends, tunnels, and cheese. In the second cage, not only did rats not choose the drug water over the regular water they actually stopped consuming the drug water. This proved that addictions are a way of humans to fill a void caused by loneliness and a lack of a support system.

"Human beings have a natural and innate need to bond, and when we're happy and healthy, we'll bond and connect with each other, but if you can't do that, because you're traumatized or isolated or beaten down by life, you will bond with something that will give you some sense of relief. Now, that might be gambling, that might be pornography, that might be cocaine, that might be cannabis, but you will bond and connect with something because that's our nature. That's what we want as human beings."]]> 2019-05-02 14:56:14 UTC https://padlet.com/babatzl/3z1nu4cjcv1u/wish/356238076 Citations babatzl https://padlet.com/babatzl/3z1nu4cjcv1u/wish/356253412 Public Affairs. "What Is the U.S. Opioid Epidemic?" HHS.gov. Accessed May 02, 2019. https://www.hhs.gov/opioids/about-the-epidemic/index.html.

Dasgupta, Nabarun et al. “Opioid Crisis: No Easy Fix to Its Social and Economic Determinants.” American journal of public health vol. 108,2 (2018): 182-186. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.304187

Hari, Johann. TED. June 2015. Accessed May 02, 2019. https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction_is_wrong/transcript.

Rogers, Kara. "The U.S. Opioid Epidemic." Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed May 02, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/story/the-us-opioid-epidemic.
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