Did Pandemic Lockdowns Worsen the Epidemic of Opioid Abuse?

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News Picture: Did Pandemic Lockdowns Worsen the Epidemic of Opioid Abuse?By Alan Mozes HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Dec. 14, 2021 (HealthDay Information)

Pandemic lockdowns might have led fewer Individuals to hunt ache remedy final yr, however people who did search assist had higher-than-usual odds of receiving harmful opioid painkillers, a brand new examine says.

And that might result in a worsening of the opioid epidemic, researchers counsel.

“It’s probably that extra sufferers might have develop into hooked on opioids than would have been the case absent the pandemic,” mentioned examine lead creator Byungkyu Lee, an assistant professor of sociology at Indiana College Bloomington.

Lee and his crew tracked remedy patterns for tens of millions of sufferers battling limb, extremity, joint, again and/or neck ache. They discovered that prescriptions for extremely addictive opioid drugs like oxycodone (OxyContin) rose 3.5% in the course of the first half-year of the pandemic in contrast with the prior yr — regardless of a 16% plummet in ache diagnoses.

Which may be as a result of, within the face of lockdowns, docs have been much less prone to flip to nonmedicinal remedies resembling therapeutic massage remedy and different types of “complementary drugs” like acupuncture and osteopathy. Scripts for such approaches fell by 6% throughout the identical time-frame.

“One purpose for rising opioid prescriptions in the course of the pandemic is lack of entry to non-pharmacologic remedies that require person-to-person contact,” defined Lee.

“Prescribing opioids for ache is a sooner and simpler ‘no-contact’ answer than bodily remedy or complementary drugs,” he famous. “Opioids could be prescribed by means of telemedicine, for instance.”

The findings have been revealed Dec. 10 in JAMA Community Open, simply weeks after U.S. well being officers reported drug overdose deaths in america elevated dramatically in the course of the pandemic — leaping almost 30% from April 2020 to April 2021 in comparison with the prior 12-month interval.

Within the new examine, the investigators examined information from two time durations: January by means of September 2019 and January by means of September 2020 (together with the primary six months of the pandemic).

About 21 million sufferers have been included in every interval. In all, the evaluation lined a few fifth of Individuals with business insurance coverage throughout all 50 states and roughly 1 / 4 of all Medicare Benefit sufferers, the authors mentioned.

Investigators in contrast prescription patterns from April to September of every yr.

Not solely have been there increased opioid prescription charges in the course of the pandemic, however they have been at increased doses — roughly equal to an extra 1.0 morphine milligrams. Additionally, prescriptions have been written for greater than at some point longer, on common, than pre-pandemic.

Nevertheless, Lee mentioned it is too quickly to say if these prescription shifts will show long-lasting.

One ache professional mentioned we must always not lose deal with different types of treating persistent ache.

“Over-reliance on opioids in the course of the pandemic might present a problem going ahead,” famous Dr. Yili Huang, director of ache administration at Northwell Well being’s Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hole, N.Y.

“Nevertheless, the main concern right here is how can we be certain that we don’t lose entry to essential ache remedies throughout a pandemic,” mentioned Huang, who was not concerned within the examine.

Lee famous that nonopioid choices “will probably proceed to be inaccessible for a lot of sufferers due to components resembling price, underinsurance, lack of transportation, lack of kid care, or incapacity to take time without work work.” In sensible phrases, he mentioned, which means Black and Hispanic sufferers, poorer sufferers and people in rural areas will stay much less prone to obtain non-drug-based options.

Huang, in the meantime, struck an optimistic observe, suggesting “the narrative and understanding of the function of opioids is altering.

“Sufferers and their suppliers are in search of acceptable secure options to deal with their ache,” he famous, including telemedicine might assist in that regard.

“I believe we will study to leverage telehealth to attach sufferers with high quality ache care like by no means earlier than,” even together with bodily remedy through the web, Huang mentioned.

“There are at all times sure facets that require in-person remedy, resembling ache procedures,” he mentioned. “However telehealth might help bridge the divide.”

SLIDESHOW

Prescription Drug Abuse: Dependancy, Well being Dangers, and Therapies See Slideshow

Extra info

There’s extra on the opioid disaster on the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.

SOURCES: Byungkyu Lee, PhD, assistant professor, sociology, Indiana College Bloomington; Yili Huang, DO, MBA, director, ache administration, Northwell Well being’s Phelps Hospital, Sleepy Hole, N.Y.; JAMA Community Open, Dec. 10, 2021

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