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. 2017 Nov-Dec;114(6):440-446.

The Opioid Crisis in Missouri: A Call to Action for Physicians, Legislators, and Society

Lawrence Lewis  1 , Christopher R Carpenter  2 , Evan S Schwarz  3 , Randall S Jotte  4 , Corey Waller  5 , Rachel Winograd  6 , Randall Williams  7 , Steven Stenger  8 , Holly Rehder  9 , Shannon Governick  10 , Luis Giuffra  11
Affiliations

The Opioid Crisis in Missouri: A Call to Action for Physicians, Legislators, and Society

Lawrence Lewis et al. Mo Med. 2017 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

Opioid overdose deaths in the United States increased sharply over the last decade leading the President to declare a national emergency. The neurobiology of opioid addiction is explored in conjunction with the historical events preceding the current epidemic. A patient-centric perspective is provided along with rationale for contemporary Medical Assisted Therapy (MAT) options to safely reduce overdose deaths and other preventable consequences of prescription misuse and heroin abuse. A multidisciplinary medical provider approach is essential, in addition to legislative efforts to reduce current regulatory burdens that reduce access to MAT in many settings. This review introduces a new Missouri Medicine series intended to explore key concepts to simultaneously reduce opioid prescribing, while effectively managing acute and chronic pain across complex healthcare settings.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Deaths Due to Opioid Overdose, 1999–2014 Reproduced with permission from the Centers for Disease Control National Center for Health Statistics
Figure 2
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 3
Stages of the Addiction Cycle Reproduced with permission from the New England Journal of Medicine 2016
Figure 4
Figure 4
Access to Methadone and Buprenorphine with Associated Decline in Overdose Deaths in France, 1990–2003 Reproduced with the permission of the Journal of Clinical Infectious Diseases and courtesy of Dr. Patrizia Carrieri
None
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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MeSH terms

Substances