Opioid Abuse in Healthcare in US

Running Head: OPIOID ABUSE IN HEALTHCARE
OPIOID ABUSE IN HEALTHCARE
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

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OPIOID ABUSE IN HEALTHCARE
Table of Contents
Opioid abuse in the US..............................................................................................................3
Significance of opioid abuse......................................................................................................3
Current healthcare practices.......................................................................................................4
Impact of opioid abuse...............................................................................................................4
Literature review........................................................................................................................5
Research article 1...................................................................................................................6
Improving Patient Knowledge and Safe Use of Opioids: A Randomized Controlled Trial
............................................................................................................................................6
Research article 2...................................................................................................................6
Prescription opioid use, misuse, and use disorders in US adults: 2015 National Survey
on Drug Use and Health.....................................................................................................6
Non-research article 1............................................................................................................7
Preventing an Opioid Overdose.........................................................................................7
Non-research article 2............................................................................................................7
The Opioid Epidemic and Its Impact on the Health Care System.....................................7
PICO question............................................................................................................................7
Recommended practice change..................................................................................................7
The process to implement the practice change..........................................................................8
Evidence Matrix.........................................................................................................................9
Authors.......................................................................................................................................9
Journal Name.............................................................................................................................9

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OPIOID ABUSE IN HEALTHCARE
Year of Publication....................................................................................................................9
Research Design.........................................................................................................................9
Sample Size................................................................................................................................9
Outcome/Variables Measured....................................................................................................9
Quality (A, B, C)........................................................................................................................9
Results/Author’s Suggested Conclusions..................................................................................9
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................12

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OPIOID ABUSE IN HEALTHCARE
Opioid abuse in the US.
Data from 2018 shows that about 128 people in the United States die from opioids
overdose every day. Opioid abuse and addiction, including prescription pain relievers, heroin,
and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, is a severe national crisis that adversely impacts on the
social, and economic wellbeing as well as the public health. According to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the total “economic burden” of prescription opioid
misuse in the US is estimated at $78.5 billion per annum, which encompasses the healthcare
costs, productivity loss, treatment for addiction, and criminal justice association. During the
late 90s, pharmacological companies convinced the medical community that prescribing
opioid medication will not lead to any addiction crisis, and hence healthcare professionals
started to prescribe opioids tremendously as a common pain reliever. This afterwards headed
to the rampant misuse of these prescriptions far before their adverse effects were even
identified, which significantly contributed to the rise in opioid overdose rates. Data from
2017 suggests that more than 47,000 Americans were deceased due to an opioid overdose. In
the same year, about 1.7 million people were estimated to be the victims of substance use
disorders connected to prescription opioids in the US.
Significance of opioid abuse
The growing abuse of prescription opioids has led to a severe public health concern
with shocking consequences such as increased rates of opioid exploitation and associated
overdoses, as well as the intensifying prevalence of neonatal abstinence syndrome caused by
opioid abuse in pregnancy. Frequent injection drug use has also added to the spread of
damaging infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, significantly. Throughout the
history of medicine, it has been observed that scientific approaches are a critical part of
solving a public health crisis of this severity (Kolodny et al., 2015).