UMEM Educational Pearls

Title: Opioids- A Major Killer

Category: International EM

Keywords: Opioids, overdose, injury, death (PubMed Search)

Posted: 1/18/2017 by Jon Mark Hirshon, PhD, MPH, MD
Click here to contact Jon Mark Hirshon, PhD, MPH, MD

· Opioid deaths, such as from heroin and prescription opioids, are a major problem globally

· In the U.S., since 1999 overdose deaths from prescription opioids have quadrupled.

o Almost half of opioid deaths involve a prescription opioid

· The most common drugs related to prescription opioid deaths are:

o Methadone

o Oxycodone

o Hydrocodone

https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/overdose.html