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families dealing with opioid overdoses

Family Member Prescribed Opioids? Then You Have a Higher Risk of Overdose Too!

It should come as no shock to learn that if an individual is prescribed opioid pain medication, then that person is at a greater risk of overdosing on opioids. What may come as a shock though is the revelation that if a person is prescribed opioid based pain medication, then all members of that person’s family are also at a greater risk of overdosing on opioids.

A study undertaken by Harvard researchers and that was published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at admissions to emergency rooms for opioid overdoses and looked to see if a member of the family of the person admitted had been prescribed opioids.

Study Shows That Just Exposure to Opioids Can Increase the Risk of Overdose

The results found that individuals with members of their family who had received opioid pain medication were around three times as likely to report an overdose event that ended with a visit to the emergency room.

It seems that when a person is prescribed opioids, the chances of any member of their family experiencing an opioid-related overdose increases three-fold.

“The claim that opioid overdose is just about ‘root causes’ rather than drug supply cannot be sustained in light of these findings,” said Keith Humphreys, an expert in drug policy at Stanford.

Since 1999, the United States has seen over 700,000 narcotic overdose deaths, with the majority of those deaths caused by opioids.

Study – Like Others – Blames Over Prescription for the Opioid Crisis

This new study suggests that the overprescribing of opioids was a significant factor in these deaths. The study also indicates that it was not just people who were directly prescribed opioid-based pain-relief medication who fell victim, but their family members too, who now had the opportunity to borrow, purchase, or steal the opioids from the person in receipt of the prescription. This proliferation of opioids has led to increased levels of availability for everyone, and this availability has led to greater levels of exposure and a higher risk of addiction and, as a consequence,  overdose.

The study looked at data from 2004 until 2015, recorded by Optum Clinformatics Data Mart. More than 2,300 individuals who experienced an opioid overdose were identified and compared with over 9,200 individuals who didn’t suffer an overdose.

Reach Out to Advanced Rapid Detox For Help Today

If you feel you’ve been personally affected by opioid addiction, then don’t hesitate to contact us at Advanced Rapid Detox in Pontiac, Michigan. You can call us by phone at (800) 603-1813, or you can use the online contact form available on our website.