Hospitals are beginning to rethink opioid prescribing practices

For the last several years, there has been a startling mortality trend emerging in the United States: Each year, middle-aged white Americans are dying at a faster clip than any of their counterparts in different age groups, ethnicities, or countries.

It’s a trend that was startling, in part, because researchers couldn’t explain why it was happening, particularly since death rates for other groups have been declining. However, in November, new research from two Nobel Prize winning Princeton economists found that the increasing number of deaths among whites 45?54 was linked to substance abuse, including heroin and prescription opioids.

According to the CDC, the rate of opioid overdose deaths between 1999 and 2013 was highest among those ages 45-54 (10.6 per 100,000). Furthermore, opioid overdose deaths increased sevenfold among adults 55-64 to 7.5 per 100,000 in 2013, and deaths among non-Hispanic whites have increased more than four times from 1.6 per 100,000 in 1999 to 6.8 per 100,000 in 2013.

This is an excerpt from the monthly healthcare safety resource Patient Safety Monitor Insider. Subscribers can read the rest of the article here. Non-subscribers can find out more about the journal, its benefits, and how to subscribe by clicking here.