Turning the Tide of Opioid Addiction
PANDEMIC EFFECTS
Since the onset of the COVID pandemic , the stress caused by isolation , financial pressures , and difficulty getting in-person treatment has fueled and intensified the opioid crisis . COVID has had a major effect on the rise of new OUD cases as well as the increasing number of relapses . For months at the onset of the COVID pandemic , dental professionals were unable to provide in-person care , forcing diagnosis and treatment via the phone or using telemedicine techniques . Too often in this type of environment , medications have been virtually the only tool in a clinician ’ s arsenal , resulting in opioid distribution as an easy answer to treating a patient ’ s pain despite an improved ability to track . For far too many people , the effect has been new rates of addiction to opioids or setbacks in overcoming dependency .
Conversely , our experience at the Pitt School of Dental Medicine during this same period of the pandemic has been a sustained reduction in opioid prescriptions given the Costello Guidelines for Prescribing Pain Medications we adopted .
CURRENT STATE
Even though the national rate for opioid prescriptions has decreased between 2012 and 2020 , a 43.3-percent rate of prescription for pain management is still much higher than is reasonable . The CDC National Center for Health Statistics reported that the rate of U . S . deaths due to opioid overdoses increased nearly 30-percent in 2020 from the previous year . This means that 93,331 deaths could have been prevented if only more reasonable , prudent policies and approaches were employed . These charts illustrate the effects that the pandemic have contributed to this crisis and the rising cases that have ensued .
Deaths per 100,000 population
90k
85k
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
1999 2000
3 Waves of the Rise in Opioid Overdose Deaths
Commonly Prescribed Opioids
Natural & Semi-Synthetic Opioids and Methadone
2001 2002 2003
Wave 1 : Rise in Prescription Opioid Overdose Deaths
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Wave 2 : Rise in Heroin Overdose Deaths
Other Synthetic Opioids e . g . Tramadol and fentanyl , prescribed or illictly manufactured
2010 2011
Heroin
Provisional U . S . drug overdose deaths
Counts for the 12-month period ending each month Sept . 2016 to Sept . 2020
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Wave 3 : Rise in Synthetic Opioid Overdose Deaths
2017
90k 87k
80k
75k
Predicted
70k Reported
65k
Sept . ‘ 16 Sept . ‘ 17 Sept . ‘ 18 Sept . ‘ 19 Sept . ‘ 20
It should not come as any surprise that this crisis has hit every part of the country . However , the problem is more acute in certain geographical regions . Rust Belt states are realizing up to a 500-percent increase in overdoses in a 10-year period .
And fatalities in a one-year period achieved new high-water marks during the COVID pandemic .