common painkillers Archives - Minnesota Physical Medicine Blog

New data shows that the number of prescriptions for opioid painkillers filled in the United States last year fell drastically, representing the biggest drop in 25 years.

The decline comes amid prescription restrictions and public education campaigns to help spread awareness of how opioids, when used incorrectly, can have harmful side effects. The report on the findings, which was released Thursday, shows a nine percent average drop nationwide in the number of prescriptions for opioids filled by retail and mail-order pharmacies.

Each state and Washington D.C. had at least a five percent decrease in opioid prescriptions. Declines were higher than 10 percent in 18 states, including all of New England, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

“We’re at a really critical moment in the country when everybody’s paying attention to this issue,” said Michael Kleinrock, research director at IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, which released the report. “People really don’t want them if they can avoid them.”

Drop In Opioid Prescriptions

Opioid prescriptions have been rising steadily since the mid-1990’s, with use peaking in 2011. The US far outpaced levels of other wealthy countries where national health systems are more strict about narcotic control. Overdoses and deaths from prescription opioids have been soaring in recent years, but advocacy groups, physicians and patients have been fighting back with increased educational strategies.

With all this said, opioids still do play an essential role in pain management for patients with chronic conditions. We are not against opioids when they are part of an integrated pain management plan, the problem becomes when doctors don’t take the time to educate their patients about their risks or conduct follow up checks to ensure patients aren’t in over their heads with their medication.

The downturn in opioid prescriptions is both good and bad. It’s a good sign that pill-mill doctors are getting exposed for what they are, but there’s also a decent chance that some chronic pain patients are struggling to get access to the medications they dearly need. It’s a double-edged sword, and there’s no perfect solution, but we should continue to push patient education so every person who takes a painkiller for their issue knows exactly what to expect and how to avoid a potentially serious issue.

Many people have heard the term “Minnesota Nice,” but the term “Minnesota Tough” may soon be a new moniker after it was revealed that Minnesota was among the lowest per capita states for pain pill prescriptions.

The report published earlier this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assessed painkiller prescriptions and analyzed how they varied state to state. The study analyzed prescription totals for common painkillers including Vicodin and OxyContin, and the findings uncovered an alarming trend about painkiller prescriptions, particularly in southeast.

Alabama had the highest rate of prescriptions, followed closely by Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana. Doctors in the south also had higher prescription rates for antibiotics and stimulants for children.

The study wanted to pinpoint the problemed states after some concerning overdose death trends emerged over the last few years. In 2011, 41 percent of the 41,000 overdose deaths were from prescription pain meds.

“Prescriptions go up, deaths go up. Prescriptions go down, deaths go down,” said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden.

Frieden added that more drug monitoring programs at the state level and more laws aimed at shutting down “pill mills” are two main ways local and national governments could help curb prescription painkiller overdoses.

Minnesota’s Number Encouraging

Although the exact numbers aren’t known, USA Today published a color-coded map that determined whether a state’s total painkiller prescription per capita total was low, medium, high or very high. Minnesota was one of 13 states to earn the “low” distinction along with Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

Aside from being tough, it appears that Minnesotans are aware that pain care needs to be a multi-faceted approach. There is no magic pain pill. Prescriptions need to be combined with diet, exercise, physical therapy and help from a trained professional if you want to give yourself the best chance to live a pain free life.

Keep it up, Minnesota.

Related source: Lee County Courier