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Analysis of opioid prescription practices finds areas of concern – 3
Narrator: This is NIH Health Matters. I’m Joe Balintfy. From 1991 to 2009, prescriptions for opioid pain medications increased almost threefold, to over 200 million. Dr. Susan Weiss at the National Institute on Drug Abuse says this wide availability may increase opportunities for abuse.
Weiss: It may be that most of these are being used for very legitimate reasons and I don’t want to underemphasize the importance of these medications for treating pain appropriately. However, we do think that their availability has gone up tremendously and we’re seeing some of the consequences of that.
Narrator: The non-medical use of prescription opioids doubled between 2005 and 2009. For details, visit www.nida.nih.gov. Health Matters is produced by the National Institutes of Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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