U.S. Opioid Prescriptions Are Declining

THURSDAY, Aug. 11, 2022 (HealthDay Information) — The US has an opioid epidemic, however there’s one vibrant spot within the struggle in opposition to it: Prescriptions for these addictive medicine have declined for sufferers with personal insurance coverage.

Amid tips over the previous decade from governments, well being programs and insurers aimed toward decreasing opioid prescriptions, earlier research have pointed to a nationwide drop in prescribing charges.

Sufferers who’re actively receiving most cancers remedies are excluded from these limits.

The brand new examine included most cancers sufferers in addition to individuals with different chronic pain. It discovered that general prescribing charges nonetheless dropped.

“We discover that from 2012 to 2019 there have been declines in opioid prescribing for people with persistent non-cancer ache and people with most cancers with out corresponding will increase in receipt of non-opioid therapies,” authors Sachini Bandara and Emma McGinty of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg College of Public Well being in Baltimore, and Dr. Mark Bicket of the College of Michigan, wrote.

The examine was revealed Aug. 10 in PLOS ONE .

“These findings spotlight the necessity to higher perceive how declines in prescribing are influencing the administration of ache amongst these affected person populations, notably because the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] is at present updating opioid prescribing tips for persistent ache,” the authors mentioned in a journal information launch.

For the examine, the researchers analyzed insurance coverage claims from 100 personal firms. They checked out sufferers with most cancers and people with different types of pain, together with low back pain, neuropathic pain, complications or arthritis.

Between 2012 and 2019, the proportion of people that had been prescribed an opioid for cancer-related ache dropped from 86% to 78.7%, the examine discovered. Those that obtained opioid prescriptions for different varieties of ache dropped from 49.7% to 30.5%.

Whereas charges of non-opioid ache medicine had been regular for individuals with non-cancer ache, researchers discovered they rose for most cancers sufferers from 74.4% to 78.8%.

For individuals who nonetheless obtained opioids, fewer individuals obtained extraordinarily excessive doses or greater than a one-week provide, the researchers reported.

They mentioned extra examine is required to learn the way the revised tips influenced ache administration in each teams.

Extra info

The U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers has extra on the opioid epidemic.