OKLAHOMA OPIOIDS
Despite state efforts, high rate of painkiller prescribing continues
Despite statewide efforts to curb opioid use and abuse, Oklahoma continues to see high rates of painkillers prescribed in a third of the counties in the state, according to a federal report released Thursday.
The report, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that Oklahoma, like much of the country, had wide variation in how opioids were prescribed in 2015.
For example, the amount of opioid prescriptions — which includes drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl — filled in McClain County in 2015 was six times higher than the amount filled in Lincoln County, although the counties have similar populations.
Physicians in the highest prescribing counties in the United States prescribed six times more opioids per person than the lowest prescribing counties in 2015, according to the CDC report.
In a conference call with reporters, CDC Acting Director Anne Schuchat said, across the country, there are still too many people getting opioid prescriptions for too many days at too high a dose.
Taking opioids for longer periods of time or in higher doses increases the risk of addiction, overdose and death, the CDC report notes.
“Opioid prescribing varies as much from place to place as the weather,” Schuchat said.
One positive note for Oklahoma was that 32 of the state’s 77 counties saw decreases in the number of opioids prescribed from 2010 to 2015.
That included Oklahoma County, which still ranked among the state’s counties with the highest number of opioids prescribed, even with the decrease.
More concerning was the correlation of counties with high numbers of opioids prescribed and high rates of drug overdose deaths.
Pittsburg County, a rural county in southeast Oklahoma, had the highest amount of opioids prescribed in Oklahoma in 2015, according to the CDC report. The county also has the seventh highest rate of opioid overdose deaths, state Health Department data shows.
Similarly, Muskogee, Bryan, Murray and Carter counties were among the 10 counties with the highest amounts of opioids prescribed, and each of those four counties is in the top 10 for high rates of opioid overdose deaths.
Overall, in 2015, Oklahoma saw an average of nearly two unintentional poisoning deaths per day, and the majority of those deaths were drug overdoses caused by prescription drugs, said Avy Redus, who coordinates opioid-related projects at the state health department.
Over the past few years, Oklahoma has implemented several strategies to combat prescription drug abuse and overdose.
Those strategies include implementing opioid prescribing guidelines for physicians, which largely match the CDC’s opioid prescribing guidelines. Public health workers also have traveled across the state to educate physicians and the public about the risks associated with opioids, Redus said.
The state also has made naloxone, a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose when given in time, available without a prescription at several pharmacies in the state. Oklahoma also has spent state and federal dollars to equip law enforcement and rural emergency medical professionals with the drug, which has collectively saved hundreds of lives.
“I think that we’ve definitely made some progress — we saw a reduction in opioid-related overdose deaths in 2015,” Redus said. “But I think there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done, and it is still is a problem. ... We don’t want to forget these (numbers) are people’s lives, and they affect communities and families and society as a whole.”