Prescription medication abuse is rising in Ontario County
The article I found for this blog is from MPNnow.com, which I believe is a Canandaigua, Ontario County, NY based news website. As above, the title of the article is Prescription Medication Abuse is Rising in Ontario County. I chose this article because I thought it dovetailed nicely with the most recent Rural Medicine lecture regarding prescription drug abuse in rural areas.
Per the article, prescription drugs are the 2nd most abused drugs nationwide, after marijuana. It is evident that this national problem is also manifesting in local communities. Lt. Brad Falkey with the Ontario County Sheriff's Office supports this claim stating that prescription drug abuse has increased over the past 5 years. In addition, of the almost 300 drug related cases this department handles annually, approximately one half were prescription drug related.
This article notes that prescription drugs are easily accessible, as one can procure such drugs via the internet or from pain clinics. Prescription drug abuse is also widespread and can be seen in college campuses and the community at large involving people of all ages and backgrounds. The most commonly abused prescription drugs include: pain relivers like vicodin, barbituates and benzodiazepines, and stimulants such as ritalin.
Clearly, prescription drug abuse is a problem, so what is next? The Partnership for Onatrio County Inc. which is a private community based not for profit agency is actively bringing together a myriad of people in order to reduce and ultimately prevent prescription drug abuse. Such people include those in education, public health and law enforcement. The goal is to bring together a variety of people who can provide community outreach such as holding workshops and hosting school programs in order to efffectively attack the growing problem of prescription drug abuse.
This is important information to be aware of as a practitioner as it is not only critical to be knowledgable about community problems, but also to be connected with the initiatives aimed at reducing such issues.
Nice article Chelsea, that definitely followed our lecture perfectly. It is crazy to think that prescription drugs are second to marijuana in drug abuse. I think that people underestimate the ease at which people obtain these drugs and how easily addictive some of these medications can be. Someone close to me abused prescription medications after they were prescribed to them post-surgery. She was someone who would never think of trying an illegal substance so I was shocked to find out about her addiction. She is a good person, smart and successful, so that just shows me that everybody is at risk and this problem needs to be controlled. A lot of the responsibility falls on the provider's shoulders. We need to make sure that prescriptions are being written only when needed and that patient education and follow-up are very important in preventing abuse. I hope that The Partnership for Ontario County succeeds in creating their outreach program and that other communities take notice and follow suit.
ReplyDeleteA common theme among the blog posts is the rise of community-based substance abuse prevention programs. This is one example of a grassroots movement. Thankfully, programs like this are launched by good Samaritans in communities and also by governmental programs. There are so many ways to reach people and offer them aid in dealing with substance abuse that many approaches are being taken. Physicians are leaders in their communities and they play an important role in initiating programs like this.
ReplyDeleteChelsey
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with you that prescription drugs are problem.I agree also that there are some public initiatives and agencies that try to integrate education, public health and law enforcement together. In my opinion, the most important thing to prevent this problem is our educational role as health care provider to talk to our patients, to advise them and to prescribe these drug wisely.
Mary