Did COVID lockdowns worsen the epidemic of opioid abuse?
Hello
Covid had a massive impact on everything and everyone. I am very glad that it is all over. Especially that I have stopped hearing about it in the news every day.
But how have those restrictions affected us after it’s all gone?
Let us have a look.
“”It is likely that more patients may have become addicted to opioids than would have been the case absent the pandemic,”said study lead author Byungkyu Lee, an assistant professor of sociology at Indiana University Bloomington.”
“They found that prescriptions for highly addictive opioid medications like oxycodone (OxyContin) rose 3.5% during the first half-year of the pandemic compared with the prior year—despite a 16% plummet in pain diagnoses.”
More people are using more drugseven though people getting diagnosed with pain is less?? That is very worrying.
“”Prescribing opioids for pain are a faster and easier ‘no-contact’ solution than physical therapy or complementary medicine,” he noted. “Opioids can be prescribed through telemedicine, for example.”
It has become easier to get the short-term relief than it was it get permanent solutions.
However,opioid pain killers are dangerous, they can quickly make the people emotionally and physically dependent on taking them.
That will rapidly lead to addiction.
This feeling of mine, that taking opioids is bad, is reaffirmed by the authors “”Over-reliance on opioids during the pandemic may provide a challenge going forward.”
Do you want to keep relying on pills to get it through the day?
OR do you want to get off them completely
Jason
