It’s not working: ER visits for opioid overdose up 30%
Summary and Analysis…
Despite responses from local, state and national policymakers, a recent report from the US Center for the Disease Control and Prevention shows the opioid crisis “shows no signs of slowing.”
A large percentage of the response to date has focused on solutions based on the brain disease model of addiction (BDMA). The CDC acting director is quoted in the piece as saying the report should be a “wake-up call” — perhaps that call should extend to exploring additional approaches that do not rely so heavily on the BDMA.
Excerpted from CNN
The opioid epidemic in the United States shows no signs of slowing, according to a Vital Signs report released Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report found that emergency department visits due to suspected opioid overdoses continued to climb — about 30% — from July 2016 to September 2017 across the country.
“This is really a fast-moving epidemic that’s getting worse,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, acting director of the CDC and acting administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, who was not an author of the report.
“The increases in overdoses were seen in adults of all age groups. They were seen in men and women. They were seen in every geographic region in the nation,” she said.
