This week, Atlanta hosted the 2016 National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit, reminding Georgians that there is still work to be done to end opioid abuse and treat substance use disorders in the Peach State. The fact that President Barack Obama headlined the event demonstrates that the entire country – not just Georgia – is in dire need of a solution to this widespread epidemic.
Georgia, along with the rest of the country, is facing an opioid abuse crisis. Our state lost more than 1,200 people to drug overdose in 2014 alone, and that same year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) named Georgia as a state with a statistically significant increase in its drug overdose death rate.
The main driver of overdose deaths? Prescription opioids and heroin.
Nationally, the CDC reports that since 2000, the rate of deaths from drug overdose has increased nearly 140 percent – including a 200 percent increase in the rate of fatal overdoses involving opioid pain relievers and heroin.
Substance use disorder – the medical term for “drug addiction” – knows no boundaries. It plagues rural towns and city streets, upscale communities and poor neighborhoods alike. In recent weeks, local media told the story of police officers entering an apartment along the Atlanta Beltline and finding a man dead from an opioid overdose. He was just 34 years old.
Our friends and neighbors, family members and colleagues need our help. Substance use disorders are medical illnesses and should be treated as such.
This is why physicians in Georgia, along with the American Medical Association (AMA), and its Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse, recommend concrete solutions to end this epidemic.
Our state has done much to address this crisis – passing legislation to identify opioid traffickers and to combat illegal pill mills. The Medical Association of Georgia’s “Think About It” campaign encourages patients to take their prescriptions responsibly and only as directed by their doctor, while groups such as Georgians for a Healthy Future have launched services aimed at preventing addiction among youth.
The AMA Task Force urges physicians to ensure they are not only registered for, but also using, the electronic health registry – known as the prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP).
PDMPs empower doctors in Georgia, and other states, with information to assist them in making informed prescribing decisions. This includes information that can help physicians prescribe controlled substances in a safer and more judicious manner. PDMPs also make doctors more aware of their own prescribing patterns.
Another important step in stifling the opioid epidemic is for physicians to continue their education and training on subjects related to the prescribing of controlled substances, treating pain with non-opioid and non-pharmacologic treatments, and recognizing the early signs and symptoms of substance use disorders.
For this to be effective, the education must relate to physicians’ particular specialties and practices.
Every physician in Georgia can already benefit from the extensive resources offered at the “Think About It” website. Efforts like this have contributed to the decrease in prescriptions for opioids in our state over the past two years.
Doctors must also be reminded of the power of naloxone, an anti-overdose drug – used to save the lives of those who may experience an overdose. To get more naloxone into the hands of individuals who need it most, more physicians need to prescribe naloxone to their high-risk patients.
While we have indeed made progress, we must do more to treat those with substance use disorders. Recovery from a substance use disorder is not a simple process – and we must work with our colleagues in the insurance industry and in our state government to ensure that we support access to comprehensive treatment without restrictions.
Physicians are responsible for leading a conversation in Georgia – spreading awareness that patients with substance use disorders need support, not judgment or shame.
This week’s Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit brought critical focus to this public health crisis. The speeches have ended, and the camera trucks have moved on, but the AMA and the Medical Association of Georgia will remain dedicated to collaborating with elected leaders, physicians across the state, and all parties working to end opioid addiction.
Together, we can – and will – bring an end to this epidemic.
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