© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
News
To contact us with news tips, story ideas or other related information, e-mail newsstaff@ideastream.org.

CDC Finds Good Opioid Prescription Trend But Much to Do

Opioid rates by county,  MME refers to Morphine Milligram Equivalents  (CDC)

A new reportfrom the Centers for Disease Control finds that the number of prescriptions for opioids is going down but still remains high.    The rate also varies widely from county to county. 

 

The overall prescribing of opioids went down 18% from 2010 to 2015 across the country but its repercussions are still on an upward trajectory in Ohio.   Overdose deaths jumped 13% from 2013 to 2014 here.  And increased another 21½ percent the following year.  

 

The interim director of the CDC, Doctor Anne Schuchat, says they aren’t sure why opioid prescription rates vary so much county by county but the highest rates are among white people in Appalachia.

 

“Or where more people were uninsured and unemployed and where more people had diabetes, arthritis or disabilities.” 

 

Schuchat says policy changes by doctors and state regulators and the closings of pill mills have gone a great way to bring down the over-prescribing of addictive pain medications.

 

"The bottom line remains: we still have too many people getting opioids prescriptions for too many days and too high a dose.”  

 

Dr. Schuchat says opioid use today is still three times what it was in 1999 and 4 times what it is in Europe.   The CDC report’s it was enough in 2015 for every American to be medicated around the clock for three weeks