opioid epidemic
Addiction public health
The opioid epidemic refers to the dramatic rise in opioid addiction, overdoses, and deaths that began in the United States in the late 1990s and accelerated through the 2010s.
It originated largely with aggressive marketing of prescription painkillers like OxyContin, then expanded to include heroin and synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
The opioid epidemic has claimed over half a million American lives.
- overprescriptionExcessive medication ordering
- prescription padsForms authorizing medication fulfillment
- pill millsClinics overprescribing controlled substances
- fentanylSynthetic pain-blocking compound
- withdrawal symptomsEffects of stopping dependence
addiction · synthetic opioids · economic burden · rust belt · small town America · safe injection sites · peer support groups · rehabilitation centers · incarceration rates · Purdue · chronic pain management · pain clinics · heroin · public awareness campaigns · generational trauma · policy reform · dependence · pills
- Drug Scandalsthalidomide, fen-phen, OxyContin, drug recalls, fentanyl crisis
- despair deathssuicide, drug overdose, alcoholism, heroin overdose, fentanyl overdose
- public healthdisease prevention, immunization, disease control, health education, epidemiology
- addictionaddiction, drug addiction, substance abuse, drug dependence, substance dependency
opioid epidemicdisease eradication
Permanent global elimination of pathogens