Overdose Causes
There have been more than 160,000 overdose deaths from prescription painkillers between 1999 and 2014 in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, new research suggests that an overdose might not be the only big concern when it comes to prescription painkillers.
The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the drugs can cause irregular heartbeats, heart attacks, or sudden death. Lead author of the study Wayne Ray commented, “As bad as people think the problem of opioid use is, it’s probably worse.”
As if 14,000 overdose deaths in 2014 from prescription painkillers wasn’t shocking enough, imagine the amount of additional deaths linked to the drugs.
Click HERE for the full article on Yahoo.
The annual National RX Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit was held on March 26, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. President Obama joined with recovery and medical professionals, low enforcement officials, and other leaders to announce additional actions that will be taken to combat the prescription opioid abuse and heroin epidemic in the U.S. Here is a list of actions that the administration will plans to take.
- Expand access to treatment
- Establish a mental health and substance use disorder parity task force
- Implementing mental health and substance use disorder parity in Medicade
- Preventing opioid overdose deaths
- Expanding public health-public safety partnerships to combat the spread of heroin
- Investing in community policing to address heroin
- Tackling substance use disorders in rural communities
- Implementing syringe services programs
- New private sector commitments to address the epidemic
Click HERE to read the full article and learn further details about these new actions on White House.