Facing Up to the Prescription Opioid Crisis

Deaths resulting from prescription opioids tripled in the United States between 1999 and 2007 and are also increasing in many other countries, including the United Kingdom. Irfan A Dhalla, Navindra Persaud, and David N Juurlink describe how this situation developed and propose several ways to reduce morbidity and mortality from opioids.

Over the past 25 years, physicians in many countries have become increasingly willing to prescribe opioids for chronic pain with causes other than cancer. The burgeoning use of opioids has been accompanied by a steep increase in opioid related mortality. In the United States, deaths involving opioid analgesics increased from 4041 in 1999 to 14 459 in 2007.

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