The Hill (9/21, Coleman) reports, “Physicians have prescribed 44 percent” fewer “opioids over the past decade, yet fatal and non-fatal drug overdoses have continued to climb, according to a new report [PDF] from the American Medical Association (AMA)” that “documented a 44.4 percent decrease in opioid prescriptions between 2011 and 2020, with a 6.9 percent reduction between 2019 and last year, with more” physicians “using prescription drug monitoring programs.” Nevertheless, CDC data revealed that “more than 93,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2020, including about 69,000 from opioid overdoses,” representing “a record high and an almost 30 percent increase in overall fatal overdoses from the prior year.”
Related Links:
— “Opioid prescriptions fell over past decade while drug overdose deaths climbed: AMA report “Justine Coleman, The Hill, September 21, 2021