About one American died of a drug overdose each 5 minutes final yr, setting one other tragic report within the nation’s escalating overdose epidemic, based on new information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The variety of overdose deaths rose virtually 15% to just about 108,000, primarily based on demise certificates the CDC evaluations and delayed and incomplete reporting it estimates.
“It’s terribly tragic and speaks to a lack of access to treatment,” stated Dr. James Ledwith, opioid administration marketing consultant on the Massachusetts Consultation Service for Treatment of Addiction and Pain. “Since COVID started, we don’t have enough physicians providing treatment for opioid use disorders.”
Most of the deaths have been fueled by fentanyl, an artificial opioid that’s 80 to 100 occasions stronger than morphine, based on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, or methamphetamine, an artificial stimulant.
Last yr, overdose deaths involving fentanyl and different artificial opioids rose 23% to greater than 71,000. Deaths involving meth and different stimulants rose 34%, whereas deaths involving cocaine elevated 23%.
Overdose deaths are sometimes attributed to a couple of drug. Some folks take a number of medicine and cheap fentanyl has been more and more lower into different medicine, usually with out the consumers’ data, officers say.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the disaster of overdose deaths as lockdowns and different restrictions remoted folks with drug addictions and made therapy more durable to get.
A Boston Medical Center program known as “Faster Paths” opened in 2016 and gives on-demand therapy for opioid and different use issues seven days every week.
There, they’ll have same-day entry to Suboxone, a medication that eliminates the craving in adults hooked on opioid medicine, and to methadone to handle emergency opioid withdrawal for as much as 72 hours, along with hyperlinks to long-term methadone therapy, stated Dr. Jessica Taylor, Faster Paths medical director and inside drugs doctor on the BMC’s Grayken Center for Addiction.
Dr. Scott Weiner, director of the Brigham Comprehensive Opioid Response and Education Program, stated most hospitals use the identical “bridge” mannequin, which permits folks to return in with out an appointment and obtain a prescription for Suboxone.
“We know that starting them on medication as soon as possible leads to better outcomes,” Weiner stated.
The subsequent enterprise day, the sufferers are despatched to a “bridge clinic,” the place there are practitioners and social staff to deal with their medical and different wants, resembling housing.
Like many different hospitals, Brigham and Women’s Hospital additionally provides drug customers with clear needles, a apply that has been controversial however which tremendously reduces the chance of them creating hepatitis or HIV.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”