Twin epidemics: the surging rise of methamphetamine use in chronic opioid users

The United States is currently in the midst of an opioid epidemic initiated by the proliferation of opioid prescriptions, starting in the late 1990s, and the subsequent diversion and abuse of these drugs (Guy et al., 2017, International Narcotics Control Board, 2009, Maxwell, 2011, McHugh et al., 2015, Wilkerson et al., 2016). Recently, prevention and intervention efforts have been enacted to curb the supply of these analgesics, including prescription monitoring programs (Brady et al., 2014), legislation limiting the reach of rogue physicians and pill mills (Soelberg et al., 2017), physician education programs (Alford, 2016), and the development of abuse-deterrent formulations (ADF) which are designed to make the inhalation or injection of prescription opioids more difficult (Cicero and Ellis, 2015).

Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence - October 10, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Matthew S. Ellis, Zachary A. Kasper, Theodore J. Cicero Tags: Full length article Source Type: research