There is no question that we are coming over the peak of an opioid epidemic. We have all heard the statistics. Over 130 people a day die of opioid overdoses in our country, and the number is not coming down quickly. Overreliance on opioid pain medication by prescribers, encouraged by Big Pharma, plays a large part in this epidemic – in 2016, there were 66.5 opioid prescriptions written for every 100 Americans. Nineteen percent (19%) of the population had a prescription, and the average patient had 3.5 prescriptions for painkillers (National Safety Council, 2018).
We are making strides on these fronts. We now have widespread mandated prescriber education on the risks of opioids, implementation of prescribing guidelines that limit the amount and length of time that a patient should have an active prescription, prescription drug monitoring programs in most clinical programs, improved data collection, more opioid overdose treatments and education, and more options for treating opioid use disorder when use turns into addiction.
So, problem solved, right?
I wish. Saying the above measures “solve” the problem of opioids is like saying we “solved” car accidents when we made laws requiring people to wear seat belts. They are fixes to the system that don’t get to the root cause of why this proliferation of opioids as a cure-all happened in the first place. I think also contributing to the opioid epidemic is an increase in Americans' attention to and perhaps fear of experiencing pain - both physical and emotional.
I’ve been diving deep into the research on pain-related fear and anxiety in preparation for a presentation on Monday at the Minnesota Association of Resources for Recovery and Chemical Health (MARRCH) conference. This session will talk about how this epidemic of pain and related fear has developed, interventions and possible solutions that incorporate understanding of co-occurring disorders and the psychology of addiction, fear, and pain. I’ve been learning some awesome things about how we might focus on treating fear of pain instead of relying on medications to stop pain that also sometimes inhibit our ability to heal from it. I’ll share some of my learnings here after the session!
