Opioids are narcotics derived from opium. In the late 1990s, doctors were encouraged to provide “sufficient” pain relief for their patients by Purdue Pharmaceuticals and other drug manufacturers. The medical community was assured that Oxycontin was not addictive. CMS (Medicare and Medicaid) created a fifth vital sign: the subjective pain level of the patient. This was included with the four objective vital signs. Pain relief became a major goal.
Prescriptions for opioids soared. Of course, like every narcotic before it, Oxycontin really is addictive. Narcotic seeking patients in the ER increased. Press-Ganey surveys were used as extortion by some patients to increase the number of pills prescribed. Narcotic prescriptions went through the roof. Doctors overprescribed.
What are the consequences of this epidemic of opioid abuse?
- Nearly 130 people die of opioid overdosing each day in America.
- The Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, estimates that the cost just for prescription opioid abuse is over $78 billion a year.
- The use of IV drugs, including IV prescription opioids, is rising dramatically, as are the diseases spread by this practice: HIV and Hepatitis B & C.
- People addicted to opioids are switching to heroin.
- Babies are born in increasing numbers with neonatal abstinence syndrome, the name for narcotic withdrawal in newborns. The number of NAS babies born each year is now five times that in 2004.
- Symptoms of withdrawal can include diarrhea, excessive crying, irritability, seizures, inability to sleep.
- Babies with NAS can have physical problems, such as low birth weight, small head circumference, birth defects, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), prematurity, and behavioral issues.
- Total hospital costs for a NAS newborn are five times that of a normal newborn.
- NAS cost Medicaid almost $600 million in 2018. The costs continue to rise.
Recognition of the problem has led to the development of solutions. Increased use of drug rehabilitation programs, improvement of pain management protocols, and better, non-narcotic treatment of chronic pain has produced a leveling off of the rise in prescription opioid addiction.
As the number of narcotic prescriptions plummets along with the number of addicted patients, fewer NAS babies will be born. Fewer lives will be ruined.