The CDC reports that an estimated 20% of patients presenting to physicians with noncancer pain symptoms or pain-related diagnoses receive an opioid prescription. In 2012 alone, health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioid pain medications. That is enough for every adult in the U.S. to have 1 bottle of pills. Since 1999, sales of prescription opioids have quadrupled. Opioids (including prescription opioids and heroin) are the main cause of overdose deaths in the U.S., and in 2014, over 28,000 people died from opioid overdose. Prescription opioids accounted for more than 14,000 of those overdose deaths in 2014.
In Alabama, there was a 19.7% increase in the rate of drug overdose deaths from 2013 to 2014, with 723 deaths in 2014.
MED Talks provide a forum for students to openly discuss diverse, student-proposed topics in healthcare, medicine, and research as well as an opportunity to raise awareness and educate their peers in a professional setting.
Check out the MED Talks website for more information and upcoming events.
Changing medicine one talk at a time.
Phone: (334) 699-2266 ext. 4242
Inside ACOM, just dial 4242.
Text: (334) 384-0868
Email: lrc.ask@acom.edu