Knowledge that Transforms

Restricted accessAbstractFirst published July 1977Marketing AbstractsWalter Gross, James U. McNeal, and John E. MertesView all authors and affiliationsVolume 41, Issue 3https://doi.org/10.1177/002224297704100315

A review published by The Doctors Company noted that nearly 10 million Americans take prescribed opioids on a long-term basis, with 5 million reporting use of opioids without a prescription (1). As these numbers increase, so does the number of deaths. According to a recent paper in Health Affairs, opioid drug deaths increased 371% between 1999 and 2016 (2). New statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show 47,600 people died from overdosing on opioids in 2018. Broken down by day, this is roughly 130 people dying every day from opioid-related overdoses (3). Cardiovascular medicine and surgery are not untouched by this national epidemic. With no real signs of reversing the opioid trends, the medical community as a whole is starting to feel the impacts. “We haven’t seen the peak yet. I think we’re cresting; we’re getting to the point where we are maybe going to start making some progress towards getting to the peak, but it’s still going to get worse before it gets better,” said Craig J. Beavers, PharmD, co-chair of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) clinical pharmacist workgroup, in a recent interview in the College’s member magazine, Cardiology (4). A study presented at ACC’s 2019 Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans showed the number of patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) as a result of drug abuse increased from 168 per 100,000 quarterly ACS admissions up to 315 per 100,000 in 2015, while overall ACS admissions decreased. Researchers reported that these patients were younger, of lower socioeconomic status, and had higher rates of smoking and chronic kidney disease (5). Another study published in the Journal analyzed the National Readmissions Database and found that the number of Americans hospitalized for infective endocarditis (IE) caused by injection drug use (IDU) nearly doubled from 15.2% to 29.1% between January 2010 and September 2015. Those with IDU-IE were younger and had fewer comorbidities, the researchers said. Approximately 11% of the IDU-IE patients underwent valve surgery to replace the mitral or aortic valve (6). In both cases, drug abuse was related to increased inpatient mortality and longer hospital stays. In the IE study, researchers noted that compared with nondrug-related IE, patients with drug-related IE who were managed medically had significantly longer hospital stays and were more likely to be readmitted for endocarditis, septicemia, and drug abuse. When managed surgically, these patients also required greater resource use, with longer length of stay and more readmissions for septicemia and drug abuse (6). The results from these and other studies like them provide a snapshot into the new issues being faced by clinicians, hospitals, and practices. The American Society of Addiction Medicine notes that “prevention efforts and treatment approaches for addiction are generally as successful as those for other chronic diseases,” but demographic factors like age and socioeconomic status, coupled with the fact that most people battling addiction “use substances or engage

A low-cost way for retailers to obtain valuable market information.