Unintentional drug overdoses reigns as the leading cause of accidental death nationally and in Arizona. We have worked with several organizations for the past four years to help implement the Arizona Prescription Drug Misuse and Abuse Initiative. We recently welcomed United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy to conduct Grand Rounds with clinicians and others [...]
In Parts I, II, and III of this series we established the acute and growing effects that the opiate painkiller epidemic is having in America, and how it has been driven (in part) by aggressive pain management strategies that were implemented since Pain was identified as the 5th Vital Sign. Since then, public health and [...]
Across the country prescription painkillers take out way more people than heroin and cocaine combined... and the story is the same in Arizona. Last year more than one person died almost every day in our state from prescription opioids... and more people died from painkiller overdoses than car crashes. In January, I blogged about how we've joined the Association [...]
You may be contributing to one of Arizona’s biggest public health problems and not even realize it. Arizona has the 6th highest rate in the country for prescription drug misuse and drug overdose death. What’s really frightening is that more than 90% of Arizona youth that misuse prescription drugs get them from family and friends. The [...]
Poisoning (including alcohol and prescription drugs) causes more deaths than car crashes in Arizona. A recent report issued by the Trust for America's Health ranked Arizona as having the 6th highest death rate for drug overdose in the country in 2010. Arizona also had one of the highest rates (4th highest at 5.7%) of nonmedical [...]
Poisoning (including alcohol and prescription drugs) causes more deaths than car crashes in AZ. Committed folks across the state are taking action on this issue. We’re part of the Arizona Prescription Drug Misuse and Abuse Initiative, a multi-agency, multi-systemic approach to addressing the epidemic. As part of this initiative, new guidelines have been issued for prescribing [...]
According to a new CDC report, about 18 U.S. women die every day of a prescription painkiller overdose, totaling more than 6,600 deaths in 2010. This is a stunning increase of 400% since 1999. Every 3 minutes, a woman goes to the emergency department for prescription painkiller misuse or abuse. The report explains that women [...]
