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TRENTON – The majority of New Jersey residents want the legislature to mandate that their doctor tell them if their prescription medicine is addictive and believe those conversations will reduce the number of individuals who become addicted to pain medications, according to a recent survey effort between Fairleigh Dickinson University’s independent survey research center, PublicMind, and Partnership for a Drug Free New Jersey.
The study finds that the majority (78%) strongly agree that physicians should be legally required to discuss the risk of developing either a physical or psychological dependency on the prescription pain medication with patients prior to prescribing it. More women (81%) than men (74%) strongly agree. Individuals 35 to 59 – the cohort most likely to have been prescribed such a pain medication, are also the most likely to (82%) to strongly agree.
The study also finds that two-thirds (64%) believe that physicians discussing the potential of dependencies with patients will help reduce the number of individuals who ultimately become addicted to the pain medications, while only 30 percent say it will have no impact. “The public is clearly on the side of more rather than less information when a doctor prescribes a potentially addictive substance,” said Krista Jenkins, director of PublicMind and professor of political science.
“The abuse of prescription drugs is a serious public health problem in this country. It has become a precursor to opiate addiction and fueled the heroin epidemic”, said Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato. “We have seen firsthand in Ocean County its impact in leading to an overdose crisis. It is imperative that we raise awareness and take steps to curb the consequences associated with abuse of prescription medications”.
“New Jersey residents understand the key conversation between patient and provider can be lifesaving,” said Elaine Pozycki, Co-Chair of PDFNJ. She explained, “these conversations can help patients make safer choices when they understand the risks associated with certain controlled dangerous substances. It can mean the difference between living a happy and healthy life and embarking on a long and sometimes deadly path of substance abuse.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, substance use during adolescence has been associated with alterations in brain structure, function, and neurocognition.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that the prescribing of opioids by clinicians has increased threefold in the last 20 years. “Today, the number of people who die from prescription opioids exceeds the number of those who die from heroin and cocaine, combined,” explained Valente. According to the CDC, health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers in 2012, enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills and each day, 46 people die from an overdose of prescription painkillers in the United States.
CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Addressing prescription opioid abuse by changing prescribing is likely to prevent heroin use in the long term.”
Recently, the American Academy of Neurology released a statement determining that the risks of powerful narcotic painkillers outweigh their benefits for treating chronic headaches, low back pain and fibromyalgia, noting the drugs can cause serious side effects, overdose, addiction and death and that research shows that 50 percent of patients who took opioids for at least three months are still on them five years later.
Methodology
The most recent survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind was conducted by telephone from February 23 through March 1 using a randomly selected sample of 901 adults in New Jersey. One can be 95 percent confident that the error attributable to sampling has a range of +/- 3.3 percentage points. The margin of error for subgroups is larger and varies by the size of that subgroup. Survey results are also subject to non-sampling error. This kind of error, which cannot be measured, arises from a number of factors including, but not limited to, non-response (eligible individuals refusing to be interviewed), question wording, the order in which questions are asked, and variations among interviewers.
PublicMind interviews are conducted by Opinion America of Cedar Knolls, NJ, with professionally trained interviewers using a CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) system. Random selection is achieved by computerized random-digit dialing. This technique gives every person with a landline phone number (including those with unlisted numbers) an equal chance of being selected. Landline households are supplemented with a separate, randomly selected sample of cell-phone respondents interviewed in the same time frame. The total combined sample is mathematically weighted to match known demographics of age, race and gender.
The sample was purchased from Marketing Systems Group and the research was funded by Fairleigh Dickinson University and the Partnership for a Drug New Jersey.
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The post NJ RESIDENTS WANT DOCTORS TO BE LEGALLY REQUIRED TO DISCUSS THE ADDICTIVE QUALITIES OF THEIR MEDICINE appeared first on Ocean County Prosecutor Office.
