In: Psychology
Summarize the opioid epidemic. In your summary, be sure to include the origins of the addiction as well as one key "takeaway". A "takeaway" is a fact, statistic, or other information that you find interesting and want to share with others.
The opioid epidemic refers to the rapid increase in the use of prescription and non-prescription opioid drugs in the United States. The epidemic began in the late 1990s and has continued till date, increasingly rapidly over the two decades. Opioids include a diverse class of moderately strong to very strong painkillers that are synthesised to resemble other opiates such as opium-derived morphine and heroin. Because of the potency and easy accessibility of these drugs, they have become an extremely popular choice for medical tratements as well as recreational drugs.
Shipton et al. (2018) have described this phenomenon as a "uniquely American problem". The prescription rates for opioids are significantly higher in the US, in comparison to other developed countries. This trend is attributed to the structure of the US healthcare system, in which people not qualifying for government programs are required to obtain private insurance, favors prescribing drugs over expensive therapies.