Long-term opioid prescription use jumps threefold over 16-year period, study suggests
Long-term use, which is associated with greater risk for addiction and overdose, increased threefold during the study's time frame. In 1999-2000, less than half of the people who were taking prescription opioids were taking them for 90 days or more. By 2013-2014, more than 70 percent were taking opioid medication on a long-term basis. The findings come as the U.S. grapples with a worsening opioid epidemic that on average is killing nearly 100 people a day, some from prescription opioids and others from illegal forms, primarily heroin. Last month, the Trump administration declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency, a step that will allow the government to dispense additional federal funds for treatment. The study, published online in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety , draws from survey data gathered by the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey, which the National Center for Health Statistics has conducted every two years since 1999-20...