Efforts aimed at curbing access to opioids, including prescription drug monitoring programs and prescribing guidelines, will have only a modest effect on reducing the number of overdose deaths, according to new research.
Researchers developed a mathematical model to assess the potential impact of different interventions on overdose deaths and found that lowering the incidence of prescription opioid misuse from 2015 levels would result in a 3% to 5% decline in overdoses by 2025.
“Even if the exact magnitude and trends in opioid overdose may be different, I think the important point in this study is that reducing medical opioid prescribing will only have a modest impact on the national burden of overdose deaths,” Michael Barnett, assistant professor of health policy and management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a February 1, 2019 Medpage Today article.
Barnett, who was not involved with the study, added, “The largest challenge right now is how can we prevent overdoses and treat addiction in individuals who transition to heroin or fentanyl.”
Read the Medpage Today article: Targeting Opioid Scripts May Have Little Effect on Epidemic