25% of people with ankle sprain were prescribed opioids

After years of increasing use, federal data suggest that opioid prescriptions are starting to decline in the United States, perhaps with the goal of reducing an addiction epidemic that continues to occur. 39; worse.

are still prescribing these powerful drugs – even for relatively minor injuries.

In fact, a quarter of patients treated for ankle sprains between 2011 and 2015 left the hospital with an opioid prescription, according to an article published in Annals of Medicine. ;emergency.

To reach this conclusion, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed private insurance claims filed by nearly 31,000 patients who had been treated in an emergency room for a twisted ankle. All of these patients were over the age of 18, and none reported having opioids previously.

Overall, 25.1% of these patients received an opioid prescription, according to the researchers. The average prescription of opioids was relatively low and provided about 15 pills, or enough for three days, but a small number of people received prescriptions equivalent to more than 30 medium strength oxycodone tablets – which according to the Drug Enforcement Administration Almost 5% of these patients who received prescriptions of this force have progressed to prolonged use of opioids, compared with about 1% of patients who wrote more moderate prescriptions and 0.5 % of people who did not receive an opioid. The researchers found that prescription habits varied enormously from one state to another: In Arkansas, for example, 40% of patients received opioid prescriptions, compared to almost 3% residents of North Dakota.

The study, funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), is the latest to demonstrate how opioids prescribed by doctors can contribute to the substance long-term. e. According to NIDA, about 80% of people who end up using heroin have first abused prescribed medications.

Despite the prevalence of opioids, research suggests that over-the-counter pain medications are also effective for most injuries. many Americans would prefer to treat pain without drugs.

In 2016, one year after the end of the research period of the new study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new stricter guidelines for prescribers. And in 2017, the CVS pharmacy started to limit access to opioids.