IT MAY HAVE SOME SIDE EFFECTS

ISSUE

Is it the same all around U.S.?

Today in the US the consumption and diffusion of opioids pain-relievers are alarmingly high. Those medications are still prescribed to treat not just cancer patients but to cure different kinds of chronic pain from severe to moderate. The highest value of pro-capita consumption is registered in Tennesse with an average 1.096,02 mg for person per year.

Pro-capite consumption of prescription opioids - 2015

Source: Center for disease control and prevention

Overdose deaths Rate and prescription opioid - 2016

Source: Center for disease control and prevention || Ims health

Do you know opioids identity?

Legal opioids are medicines which are chemically very similar to heroin and that act on opioid receptors in the spinal cord and brain to reduce the intensity of pain-signal perception. Those medications can produce also other effects like drowsiness, mental confusion, nausea, constipation, respiratory depression and can induce euphoria, particularly if taken at a higher-than-prescribed dose or administered in improper ways. If used for long-term treatments they lead to dependence.

Source: Center for disease control and prevention

ROOTS

How did it all started?

The roots of the current situation can be found in the 90’s when opioid medications in the US gone from being used almost exclusively in hospital treatments to a widespread remedy for pain. In the 80’s the undertreatment of pain was a real social issue and opioid relievers appeared as a super- efficient and (at first) safe solution. Prescriptions for that kind of painkillers raised sharply and, unfortunately, also the deaths for opioid overdose soon started to raise. FDA and other government organizations aware of the rising problem started to work - especially from the early 2000s - by intensifying the control over prescriptions with many new regulations and guidelines.

HOW TO READ IT

Other FDA and governative actions
TEXT approvals of medication

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Source: Federal Drug Administration

How much Purdue Pharma invested?

In the 90’s pharmaceutical companies undertook advertisement campaigns to promote opioids for the wide public. 1996 is often addressed as the year of start for the crisis due to the campaign of Purdue Pharma “I got my life back” in which xyContin was presented as a perfectly safe medicine able to cancel pain from people’s lives. In fact, from 1996 to 2002 Purdue Pharma massively invested in marketing advertising.

Source: Purdue And The OxyContin Files

SPOTLIGHT

Who pays who?

2013-2016

Today the high risks connected to a not strictly necessary and controlled use of opioids are evident but still, a lot of investments are dedicated to the promotion of these medications. In particular, pharmaceutical companies pay considerable contributions to doctors for information campaigns for opioids and in proportion to the number of prescriptions they make. If it’s true that paying doctors for speaking and consulting is legal, on the other hand it is illegal to prescribe specific medicines in exchange for kickback payments. This is causing a vicious cycle which is hard to be stopped and that was only in recent years brought to light. As this pattern grows, lot of concerns regard the infuence this money can have on prescribing opioids over less dangerous alternatives and thus not working in the best interest of the patient.

Source: Propubblica

DEPTH