The Opioid Tragedy, Part 2: ‘It’s Not a Death Sentence’
One prescription drug is keeping some addicts from dying. So why isn’t it more widespread? A story of regulation, stigma, and the potentially fatal faith in abstinence.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died of opioid overdoses in recent years. While opioid deaths in the United States have started to level off, more than one in five Americans still have at least one opioid prescription filled or refilled per year. And a dependence on prescription opioids can too easily lead to a dependence on heroin or synthetic fentanyl, both of which are far deadlier.
The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that roughly 2 million Americans have opioid use disorder. As health care economist Alicia Sasser Modestino told us in a previous column, an entire generation has been addicted at this point.
What’s to be done about this addicted generation? There’s one treatment option that researchers have found to be relatively safe and effective. So why isn’t it more widespread?
Last year, the three hospitals in the University of Pennsylvania health system treated about 400 opioid-overdose patients. Five years ago, those patients would have been on the receiving end of…
