Bipartisan effort to focus on prescribing practices and treatment to reduce prescription opioid misuse and heroin use.
A targeted initiative aimed at reducing prescription opioid and heroin related overdose, death, and dependence was announced today by Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell. In announcing the initiative, Secretary. Burwell noted that the 2016 budget includes critical investments to intensify efforts to reduce opioid misuse and abuse, "including $133 million in new funding to address this critical issue."
The Secretary’s efforts focus on 3 priority areas that tackle the opioid misuse, significantly impacting those struggling with substance use disorders and helping save lives.
Prescription drugs, especially opioid analgesics have increasingly been implicated in drug overdose deaths over the last decade. Among drug overdose deaths in 2013, approximately 37% percent involved prescription opioids. As trends in opioid prescribing have decrease, deaths related to heroin have sharply increased since 2010, with a 39% increase between 2012 and 2013. "Given these alarming trends, it is time for a sustainable response to prevent and treat opioid use disorders," noted a press release from the agency.
On March 6, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention for States program to provide state health departments with resources to enhance their Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and advance innovative prevention efforts.
Press release from HHS Press office http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2015pres/03/20150326a.html. Accessed March 26, 2015.