After a record-setting 2017, drug overdose deaths were down last year in Northwest Indiana (Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties), and local officials are cautiously optimistic that the opioid epidemic is slowing down. Experts attribute the decline to the widespread use of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, an increase in treatment availability and more awareness about the crisis, among other reasons. Though deaths involving heroin in the region were down in 2018, cocaine and methamphetamine use are both on the rise.
A new study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that between 2012 and 2017, the rate of first-time opioid prescriptions declined by 54 percent. The study examined 86 million people covered by private insurance. Researchers hope that a large number of providers are moving toward safer prescribing with low doses and short duration. Though hopeful, researchers raised concerns that the decrease in prescriptions might have had the adverse effect of not addressing the degree of pain for all patients.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released a publication to assist community-based behavioral health providers in clinical and case management practice for people with mental and substance use disorders who are involved with or have a history of involvement in the adult criminal justice system. The guide is composed of eight guiding principles, frequently asked questions, resources for further reading, and a glossary of terms for behavioral health providers and criminal justice professionals. The information provided is intended to be used in practice, and is therefore appropriate for any staff providing direct services in community settings.
More than 300 healthcare experts that comprise the Health Professionals for Patients in Pain published a statement to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the agency’s guidelines for the use of opioids against chronic pain are harming patients who suffer from long-term pain and benefit from the prescription narcotics. The CDC guidelines, issued in 2016, assert there is little evidence for the use of opioids against pain beyond 12 weeks. However, many patients have claimed that long-term use of the drugs is all that stands between them and unrelenting pain, and that they can take the medication without becoming dependent or addicted. The CDC said the 2016 guidelines do not “endorse mandated or abrupt dose reduction or discontinuation. The guideline recommendation on high-dose prescribing is to avoid or carefully justify increasing opioid dosages above this threshold.”
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