Study Shows Dramatic Increase in Opioid Overdose Deaths
Across the country, opioid overdose deaths continue to increase. According to a recent study, more than 1.2 million additional Americans are expected to die of opioid overdoses by 2029 unless the country’s approach to the crisis changes. Indeed, dramatic interventions are necessary to prevent opioid overdose deaths from spiraling out of control.
During the Covid-19 pandemic and the long isolation, opioid overdose deaths continued to rise. Prepared by the Stanford-Lancet Commission on the North American Opioid Crisis, The Lancet report focuses on evidence-based solutions to the opioid crisis. As a provider of substance use disorder treatment, Tarzana Treatment Centers (TTC) endorses evidence-based solutions. From experience on the front lines of the crisis, TTC knows the best way to treat opioid use disorder is with Medications for Addiction Treatment (MAT Services).
Opioid Overdose Deaths and MAT Services
When people enter treatment for opioid use disorder, the biggest danger is relapse. Once they stop using, the person’s built-up tolerance to the drug diminishes. As a tragic result, when drug users, who are trying to recover, relapse after leaving treatment, they often overdose and die. With the rise in fentanyl abuse and fentanyl contamination, the chances of dying are much greater. Indeed, street drugs are more powerful today than ever before. Thus, synthetic formulations of opiates lead to opioid overdose deaths.
If you are wondering why addicts relapse, it is because early recovery is hard. Without the opioid high, which has become their best friend, they go into withdrawals, feeling abandoned. Hence, addicts fighting withdrawal symptoms experience itchy skin, hot flashes, cold sweats, muscle aches, extreme insomnia, and more. Understanding these dangers, TTC provides Medications for Addiction Treatment. Otherwise known as MAT Services, these FDA-approved drugs manage withdrawal symptoms.
What is most important is that effective withdrawal management prevents opioid overdose deaths. Indeed, MAT Services saves countless lives.
Medications for Addiction Treatment Offer Hope
There is a reason why America needs to pay attention to this study. After all, “The Stanford–Lancet Commission on the North American Opioid Crisis was formed in response to soaring opioid-related morbidity and mortality in the USA and Canada over the past 25 years. The Commission… brings together… leading experts across the USA and Canada, with the goals of understanding the opioid crisis, proposing solutions to the crisis domestically, and attempting to stop its spread internationally.”
Given such respected findings, TTC believes the time to take action is now. Thus, more capital needs to be directed toward treatment and prevention. Moreover, MAT Services need to go from the exception to the rule. Indeed, Medications for Addiction Treatment offer hope for people in the grip of opioid use disorder.