opiod presentation

Running head: OPIOID ADDICTION 1

OPIOID ADDICTION 3

Opioid Addiction

By: Tamika Brown

HSA 300: Health Services Organization Management

Professor: Janet Kaplan

October 14, 2018

Opioid Addiction

More than 110 people die of opioid-overdose every day in the United States. Addiction and misuse of opioids, including fentanyl, heroin, and prescription pain meds, has become a national crisis which affects not only public health but also the economic and social welfare of the country. The CDC estimates that the government loses almost 79 billion dollars every year due to opioid misuse. This includes healthcare costs, lost productivity, involvement in criminal justice and addiction treatment. The following essay focuses on guidelines provided by physicians for the use of opioids and how hospitals can monitor prescription drugs as part of their Quality Management Department while deriving ideas from a peer-reviewed article called Medication-Assisted Therapies — Tackling the Opioid-Overdose Epidemic.

As the article states, the rate at which people are dying due to opioid overdose quadrupled between early 1999 and 2010, becoming the worst case of drug addiction in the United States. In 2010, an estimated 16,600 individuals died from opioid-overdose, while 3000 died from misuse if heroin. Of all the cases, more than 80% of the deaths were unintentional, while the rest were classified as suicide or unknown intent. The rate at which people are admitted to hospitals because of opioid-related cases has also increased. Insurers parted with more than 72 billion dollars in 2007, a substantial increase compared to the previous years. The cost was equal to the amount used in managing chronic diseases like HIV/AIDS and asthma. The alarming trend has made government organizations to classify the problem as an epidemic and promoted actions against it (Volkow, Frieden, Hyde, & Cha, 2014). The activities view the issue as a disease, as the government states addiction can be cured.

The opioid overdose epidemic is said to be complicated, and medication-assisted therapies play a significant role in helping patients to recover. However, preventive measures need to be set to contain the misuse of opioid, as it may jeopardize the genuine use of the medication to save lives when needed. Physicians also need to stop prescribing excess opioid to patients and regularly drug monitoring data to find out which patients are misusing opioids. Hospitals also need to use MATs to help individuals fighting opioid addiction.

In conclusion, misuse of opioids has increased over the years and has resulted in more deaths than any other drug overdose. It has reached a point that the problem is now being treated as an epidemic, with the government using a lot of money to fight against it. Physicians should monitor data when prescribing opioids to avoid giving out excess drugs. Also, hospitals can use MATs in a bid to help opioid addicts.

References

Volkow, N. D., Frieden, T. R., Hyde, P. S., & Cha, S. S. (2014). Medication-Assisted Therapies — Tackling the Opioid-Overdose Epidemic. The New England Journal og Medicine, 2063-2066.