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Latest Mental Health News<\/h3>\n
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SATURDAY, Oct. 3, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
Here’s some heartening news on the opioid painkillers front: Abuse of the prescription medicines in the United States fell by more than one-quarter between 2007 and 2018.<\/p>\n
“Prior research has shown slight reductions in abuse rates, but our analysis shows we’re tracking statistically significant year-to-year declines in abuse, indicating that the decrease is not an anomaly and truly represents a trend in falling prescription drug abuse<\/a> levels,” said study author Mario Moric, a biostatistician at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.<\/p>\n He and his colleagues analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use<\/a> and Health, an annual survey of about 70,000 Americans aged 12 and older who are asked about their use of tobacco, alcohol<\/a> and drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n For the study, prescription opioid abuse was defined as use without the consent of a physician.<\/p>\n The percentage of survey respondents who said they’d abused prescription opioids in the previous year fell from 4.9% in 2007 to 3.7% in 2018, a 26% decrease.<\/p>\n There were significant declines in prescription opioid abuse from 2012 to 2018, with the exception of 2015, when higher numbers were reported due to a survey redesign introduced that year, the researchers said.<\/p>\n The findings were to be presented Saturday at the virtual annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.<\/p>\n “We believe the message of the dangers of opioid use without supervision of a medical professional is finally getting through and changing people’s mindset and behavior,” Moric said in a meeting news release.<\/p>\n “Pain<\/a> medications such as opioids are an important resource in the treatment and care of patients, but they are not a cure-all,” said study co-author Dr. Asokumar Buvanendran, chair of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Committee on Pain<\/a> Medicine and executive vice chair of anesthesiology at Rush University Medical Center.<\/p>\n “Since opioids have risks and can be highly addictive, they should be used only under the supervision of a physician who can consider their safety and how the medication will affect a patient over time,” Buvanendran said in the release. “Prescribers and patients are now better armed with the information they need to make educated choices in pain management<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Research presented at meetings is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.<\/p>\n — Robert Preidt<\/p>\n![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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