A new report indicates that opioid addiction may be declining. Here's how Utah has behaved

SALT LAKE CITY – According to a new report, opioid addiction may be on the decline

. A new Blue Cross Blue Shield report released Thursday said new diagnoses of opioid addiction were registered among its customers for the first time. indicates a turning point in the opioid addiction crisis.

Blue Cross, which insures 1 in 3 Americans, estimates that about 2 million people in the United States have a disorder of opioid use. However, the report found a 5% decrease in the diagnosis of opioid dependence from 2013 to 2017.

"We are encouraged by these results, but we remain vigilant," Trent Haywood, vice president and chief medical officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield, said in a statement

In fact, the report found that 6.2 of the 1,000 Blue Cross members were diagnosed in 2016 with an opioid use disorder. The Blue Cross report indicates that the total number of opioid drugs filled by Blue Cross members has dropped by 29% since 2013.

The report says that Utah was between 25 and 30 years old. Percentage of decrease in opioid prescriptions per 1,000 members of Blue Cross from 2013 to 2017.

Andrew Kolodny, addiction expert at Brandeis University, told BuzzFeed News that the report states that there is light at the end of the tunnel. on this story

"Unfortunately, the genie is out of the bottle," added Kolodny. "Millions of Americans are now battling opioid addiction – unless we do a better job of improving access to effective treatment, overdose deaths will remain at record levels and we will have to wait until this generation disappears before the end of the crisis. "

The opioid crisis was a kind of plague hidden in the state of Utah, affecting Mormon mothers, Park City teens and families everywhere in the state of Beehive.