A new analysis indicates that opioid prescriptions in the United States are declining, the first measured drop since OxyContin was introduced to the market in 1996. Despite the aggressive rise in prescriptions over the last two decades, within the last three years, 2o13, 2014, and 2015, there has been a drop according to various sources of data.
The recorded data, scientists suggest, points to a possible peak in the opioid epidemic in the wake of resounding warnings from the scientific community of the narcotic’s insidious danger. “The culture is changing,” said Dr. Bruce Psaty, a researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle who analyzes drug safety. “We are on the downside of a curve with opioid prescribing now.”
IMS Health, a consultancy and research firm that the health care industry sources for data on prescriptions revealed a 12 percent decline in national opioid prescriptions since a climax in 2012. Symphony Health Solutions, a related company, reported an 18 percent decline during the same period. IMS also found that prescriptions have fallen in 49 states since 2013, with the biggest slump coming from West Virginia, the nucleus of the epidemic.
But the death toll remains unchanged. Fatal overdoses from the narcotic have steadily risen claiming over 28,000 lives in 2014 detailed in federal health data. These measures include deaths related to painkillers such as Percocet, Vicodin, and OxyContin. Yet usage of heroin, the illegally classified opioid, has been climbing because of prescription drug restrictions.
Although experts are unanimous in that the decline is authentic, they disagree on what the information means for patients. Some professionals believe that regulations have been too lax for too long, which need to be reexamined—even if that means more obstacles for patients.
“The urgency of the epidemic, its devastating consequences, demands interventions that in some instances may make it harder for some patients to get their medication,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in a statement. “We need to set up a system to make sure they are covered. But we cannot continue the prescription practice of opioids the way we have been. We just can’t.”
The federal government’s revamping of prescription regulations of hydrocodone and acetaminophen in 2014 could have propelled the reduction. A survey conducted by JAMA Internal Medicine found that in the first year after the mandate took effect, dispensed prescriptions tumbled by 22 percent and pills by 16 percent.
Experts are cautiously optimistic considering the rise in death deaths from heroin and fentanyl, a potent synthetic painkiller. Addicts addicted to these drugs got their taste with painkillers before hitting the streets.
The complete report was originally published in The New York Times.