An ‘anomaly’ in opioid crisis
Home of Purdue Pharma has fewer opioidrelated deaths than other Conn. cities
STAMFORD — In each of the five biggest cities in Connecticut, the number of opioidrelated deaths over the last four years easily totals more than 100 people, with one exception.
That one outlier is Stamford, home of Purdue Pharma, the creators of the opioid painkiller OxyContin, and the target of thousands of lawsuits from cities, towns and states across the country claiming the company released the drug knowing its addictive qualities.
In Stamford, 44 people died from an opioid overdose between 2015 and 2018.
In comparison, Hartford had 225 deaths and Bridgeport registered 185 fatalities. Waterbury, the fifth biggest city in the state, suffered 190 deaths, about five times the rate percapita as Stamford.
And those aren’t the only municipalities to suffer more opioidrelated deaths than Stamford. Much smaller communities such as New Britain, Meriden, Manchester, Bristol, Torrington, and Stratford all had more deaths over the same period of time, according to figures from the chief state medical examiner’s office.
“Stamford is an exception in several ways,” said Robert Heimer, professor of epidemiology and pharmacology at the Yale University School of Public Health. “It is an anomaly.”
Many link the prescription of OxyContin to the drug epidemic, arguing that some became hooked on the painkiller, leading them to seek illegal drugs such as heroin and fentanyl as a result. Fentanyl,
which is 100 times stronger than morphine, has been especially destructive. In Connecticut, 760 of the 1,017 opioidrelated deaths in 2018 involved one or more forms of fentanyl.
Heimer has studied the demographics of opioid deaths by looking at census tracts. In a study published in 2014, he and other researchers focused on the suburbs of New Haven and Fairfield counties, using a tool called the community disadvantage index.
What they found, among other things, was that drug users were often found in poorer census tracts.
That might be a clue as to why Stamford hasn’t registered as many deaths as other communities, he said, because of its relative affluence.
Nearby Greenwich and New Canaan, two affluent communities, have 15 opioidrelated deaths between the two of them from 2015 to 2018, relatively small numbers compared to other cities and towns of the same size.
“Among the big cities in the state, it’s quite clear that Stamford is the exception,” Heimer said.
John Hamilton, president and CEO of the addiction treatment center Liberation Programs, said Stamford has been more fortunate than other places in the opioid crisis, but he believes the low number of opioidrelated deaths in the city could also be an indication of a strong network of resources for addicts.
“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety,” he said. “The opposite is connection.”
He said Liberation Programs treats about 700 people a day in Stamford. In Bridgeport, the same program has about 800 patients, but the city has two other similar organizations that each help about 900 people a day.
Hamilton said one of the possible reasons Stamford fares better in opioid mortality is that the unemployment rate is not as high as in other places. Not having work and struggling financially can often lead to hopelessness and despair, he said.
“It’s hard to say no to drugs today if you don’t have a bright future,” he said.
For Hamilton, the challenge is getting even more people to seek treatment through medications such as methadone and buprenorphine.
Addicts who are not on some form of medication have a 90 percent chance of relapsing in the first year, Hamilton said, and a large percentage don’t seek help.
“We need to let people know that this medication will keep them alive,” he said.
That’s why Hamilton and Liberation Programs recently came up with the idea of bringing lifesaving help to the community, through a psychedelically-designed van with the words “Wellness Resources” written across the side under the phrase “meeting people where they are.”
“We’re going out in the van just to engage people and build a relationship,” he said.
While Stamford has been relatively fortunate in the opioid crisis, that doesn’t mean the city doesn’t suffer from substance abuse.
Ben Wade, senior vice president of strategy and marketing at Stamford Health, said binge drinking is prevalent in the city. Binge drinking is defined as five drinks on one occasion for a man, and four for a woman.
“Alcohol and alcohol abuse is something that as a community we should focus on,” he said.
One of the findings of the 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment conducted by Stamford Health found that almost 45 percent of Stamford people between the ages of 18 and 34 said they binged on alcohol in the previous 30 days.
“While there is concern about opioids, marijuana, heroin and synthetics such as fentanyl, alcohol continues to represent the largest share of substance use disorders,” the report said.
When it comes to battling opioids, Stamford Health has undertaken a number of initiatives.
One program used by Stamford Health screens patients prior to surgery to identify whether they are at high risk for experiencing significant pain during surgery or at high risk for developing, or currently have, a substance use disorder.
Based on that, pain management physicians tailor therapy to reduce the likelihood of patients developing dependencies to medications.
Dr. Rohit Bhalla, chief quality officer for Stamford Health, said such a program helps the health organization when it comes to prescribing painkillers.
“We look very carefully for opioid usage and review medications for people who come into the system,” he said.
The result, he said, is a reduction in opioid prescriptions, which he sees as an encouraging trend.
In partnership with nonprofit Communities 4 Action, Stamford Health also started offering a program called Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery, or CCAR, which provides substance abuse counselors in emergency rooms. Patients with a substance abuse issue who come s into the ER are asked if they would like a peer counselor. If they agree, and many do, that counselor becomes their partner in treatment.
“We’ve seen great results,” Wade said.