Publisher's Synopsis
The Opioid Tsunami - 70,237 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States in 2017. The age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths increased significantly by 9.6% from 2016 (19.8 per 100,000) to 2017 (21.7 per 100,000). Opioids-mainly synthetic opioids (other than methadone)-are currently the main driver of drug overdose deaths. Opioids were involved in 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017 (67.8% of all drug overdose deaths).The opioid epidemic, and addiction more broadly, have become the defining public health crisis of our generation. The Opioid Tsunami Opioids are responsible for the worst drug epidemic ever to hit the United States. Shockingly, it is also the first one to have been "generated in the health care system," says Nora Volkow. As physicians struggled to help patients suffering chronic pain, the pharmaceutical industry heavily promoted opioids and downplayed their abuse potential. Overdose deaths have risen steadily, quadrupling in the U.S. since 1999 as prescriptions soared.The bright spot here is that addiction is increasingly recognized as a medical, not a criminal problem - a disease of the brain, not a disease of choice - and there are treatments that work. If a reader wants to knw how this epidemic started, the morbidity and mortality, what is currently being done to curb this disaster that is growing geometrically, what governmental resources that have been allocated to this disaster (IE SAMSHA) -and what promising new developments and technological breakthroughs (such as vaccines) are under development to help bring this disaster of all disasters under control. An incredibly well researched book that will explain everything in easy to understand language, The purchase of this bool also gives you access to the associated blog site.
