Announcements and more
Are increasing opioid analgesic deaths
caused by pain management?
In a recent article in Pharmacopidemiology and Drug Safety 1, researchers from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, report on the tragic increase in drug poisoning deaths involving opioid analgesics. The authors link the rising opioid mortality with increasing medical use of opioids analgesics for "more aggressive pain management" (p. 618)
In an adjoining commentary 2, David Joranson and Aaron Gilson call attention to the risks of using correlations to make causal statements that implicate pain management; they review significant evidence of non-medical sources of diversion of opioid analgesics, including millions of doses of prescription opioid analgesics that have been stolen from pharmacies before being prescribed 3. Recommendations are offered for a public health examination that can inform effective interventions.
1. Paulozzi LJ, Budnitz DS, Xi Y. Increasing deaths from opioid analgesics in the United States . Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety 2006;15:618-627. Accessed through http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/commentary.htm
2. Joranson DE , Gilson AM. Wanted: A public health approach to prescription opioid abuse and diversion (Editorial). Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety 2006;15:632-634. Accessed through
http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/commentary.htm
3. Joranson DE , Gilson AM. Drug crime is a source of abused pain medications in the United States [letter]. J Pain Symptom Manage 2005;30:299-301.
Available at
http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/publicat/05jpsm/05jpsm.pdf
Jody P. Garthwaite, BA, Communications Coordinator
Pain & Policy Studies Group, University of Wisconsin Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center
World Health Organization Collaborating Center
406 Science Drive, Suite 202
Madison, WI 53711-1068
ph.: 608.263.5438
fax: 608.263.0259
website: www.painpolicy.wisc.edu
email: [email protected]
Announcement
WANTED! Fluent Russian/English speaking qualified palliative care and infectious disease physicians to teach with Open Society's (OSI) International Palliative Care Initiative on palliative care in AIDS educational courses in Russia and other Russian speaking countries. Please send cv via email to [email protected]
Top of Page |
