Special Issue Article - Journal of Aging and Geriatric Psychiatry (2021) Volume 5, Issue 2

The Opioid Crisis in Three Charts

 An analysis has been conducted of data separately reported by the US CDC concerning rates of opioid prescribing, versus rates of opioid overdose-related deaths. When charted together rather than reported separately, it is apparent that the widely reported and discussed “opioid crisis” in the US was not originally created and is not now being sustained by physicians over-prescribing opioid analgesic medications to their patients. “Over-prescribing” is a political mythology, not a scientific fact

Author(s): Richard A Lawhern

Abstract PDF