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Opioid Crisis New York City and Any Town Week 3 Assignment Comparable City Analysis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opioid Crisis New York City and Any Town

The opioid crisis in New York City

Misuse of opiods seems to be a battle that New York City is losing. This explains why the Spectrum News NY1 launched a campaign against opioid misuse dubbed The New York City Battle earlier this year on 22nd May. There was also a twitter awareness campaign called #NYCinCrisis. The commonly abused opiates are fentanyl, morphine, buprenorphine, codeine and heroin. This opiates produce euphoric and tranquil effects when taken in higher doses than prescribed. These effects exhibit as pleasant care-free feelings. It is also characterized by compulsive drug-seeking behavior. Heroin is the most abused in New York due to its cheapness and availability.

Non-medical use of opioids is currently a national issue in the United States. According to the Department of Health 2019 opioid annual report, there were 47,600 heroin overdose deaths in the US nationally. In New York, there were 3, 224 overdose deaths among residents in 2017 of which 1,044 involved commonly prescribed opioids. 1,356 of this were heroin-related, and 2,238 are synthetic opioids. Form 2010 and 2017, there has been a 200 percent increase in opioids overdose deaths in New York (Department of Health, 2019).. In New York State of which New York City is part of which 25,500 opioid overdose hospitalizations including opioid abuse, dependence, and unspecified use. There were also over 12,300 visits to Emergency Departments for opioid overdose. In 2018, there were over 62,000 New York residents who were admitted to New York State certified treatment programs for opioids (Department of Health, 2019). In New York City, roughly 21 to 29 percent of patients prescribed on opioids for chronic pain end up misusing the (Harocopos et al., 2016). Between 8 to 12 percent of this group develop an opioid disorder. In New York City, more than 6,800 people have died from opioid overdose since 2010.

The opioid crisis was unprecedented. It has led to a dramatic increase in the number of deaths, devastated the lives of those with opioid use disorders (OUDs). There has also been a rise in the number of newborns diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome (Pouget et al., 2018). To address this crisis, the New York State Department of Health has continuously being awarded more than $7million annually by Centers from Disease Control and Prevention through a program referred to as Prescription Drug Overdose: Prevention for States program. The state as a whole has also been awarded $4 million Public Health Crisis Response cooperative agreement.

Specific populations are vulnerable to the crisis.

In a nationwide prevalence survey of 69, 140 patients, the heroin use and misuse prevalence rates were higher among the Black and Latino compared to White population (Pouget & Rosenblum, 2018). Two in three of the people diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD) were younger than the age of 25. The highest opioid misuse has been recorded among adults aged 18-34 years. These are the adolescents and young adults (AYAs). The age group mostly encompasses young people in tertiary level education institution and early into employment (Ford & Schroeder, 2018. There is also a minority of youth in high schools. The percentage of students using heroin has been consistently higher than that nationally (Department of Health, 2019). Many of them are males. Many are also associated with lower income, and reside within the city. Many are also non-private payers. However, there has been an increase among women, people using health insurance, and higher income individuals.

Impact of the crisis

The Adolescent and young people have been heavily impacted by the opioid crisis. Their higher abuse of opioids can be related to the ongoing development of reward pathways in the brain. This contributes to the high-risk and substance-seeking behaviors which predisposes them to opioids use and abuse. A bigger percentage of this group also experience academic difficulties which further increases their vulnerability to opioid abuse. Most of the students with academic strain has been attributed to higher levels of depression. Many of this students abuse opioids as a coping mechanism. Reduced knowledge on the effects of opioids abuse also stimulates abuse of opioids. Opioid use has also been associated with mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and depression earlier addressed. Other risk factors include school absenteeism, influence from friends who misuse opioids, housing instability especially due to the high cost of living in New York City (Schoenfeld et al., ).

There are various types of studies which include: annual reports by the New York Department of Health, epidemiological studies, research papers, non-peer reviewed reports, presentations, and articles. The research studies are diverse in terms of research objectives, outcome measures, data sources, time period, geographic coverage, and data linkages. Most of these involve are analyses of existing datasets from state surveys, electronic health records, prescription drug monitoring, program data, and other data sources. Only few have obtained information from primary data sources, most of them semi-structured interviews which aim at determining why people use opioids (Cicero & Ellis, 2017).

Some of the research studies aim at determining emerging issues that precipitate overuse of opioids. This data is used to feed the insufficient understanding of factors that are influencing opioid overuse. There are also qualitative studies on reviewing the initial use and the progression use of opioids to abuse.

Some quantitative studies focus on determining the racial/ethnic differences and the prevalence of trends in the socio-demographic groups on non-medical use of opioids. There are also other studies that focus on prevalence of age groups on opioids overuse. Research on opioid burden in outpatient emergency departments and ambulatory hospital services in New York City has also been conducted (Cicero & Ellis, 2017).

Use of secondary resources is advantageous in that it strengthen a researcher’s awareness on the existing multiple data sources. The research studies also help to link data enhancing further the quality, usability, and availability of data. The weakness of these data is that some of it is contextualized to different geographic locations and age groups and thus should not be used summarily for any research. Most of the research studies done focuses on New York State as a whole. It is difficult to find data that is contextualized from New York City except clinical data. Information can you apply to Any town

Qualitative studies on the patterns that from initial prescription use to misuse can be applied in different cities. Most of the patterns are precipitated by similar factors irrespective of the geographical locations. Information on motivation for use with no preexisting medical history, experiences of stigma, and practices of diversion could also be applied to any city. This are factors independent of geographical predisposition. Strategies initiated for addressing the opioid epidemic could be simulated to other cities. Information on socio-demographic factors influencing opioid use should could also be applied in different towns. However, it is important to evaluate this information and contextualize it if need be.

Guidance could also be obtained from other cities by studying the interventions instituted in tackling the crisis. Benchmarking sessions between the two cities could also be organized. The feasibility of such interventions should be evaluated. This could be done by determining the results obtained and their sustainability. The city’s administration can also inform on research done to support prevention and treatment of opioid misuse and disorders. This should be inclusive of primary prevention, secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention programs. New York City’s administration could also learn from community’s engagement and collaboration projects initiated in other cities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

 

Allen, B., & Harocopos, A. (2016). Non-prescribed buprenorphine in New York City: motivations for use, practices of diversion, and experiences of stigma. Journal of substance abuse treatment, 70, 81-86.

Cicero, T. J., & Ellis, M. S. (2017). The prescription opioid epidemic: a review of qualitative studies on the progression from initial use to abuse. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 19(3), 259.

Department of Health (2019). New York State Opioid Annual Report.

Harocopos, A., Allen, B., & Paone, D. (2016). Circumstances and contexts of heroin initiation following non-medical opioid analgesic use in New York City. International Journal of Drug Policy, 28, 106-112.

Palamar, J. J., Le, A., & Cleland, C. M. (2018). Nonmedical opioid use among electronic dance music party attendees in New York City. Drug and alcohol dependence, 186, 226-232.

Pouget, E. R., Fong, C., & Rosenblum, A. (2018). Racial/ethnic differences in prevalence trends for heroin use and non-medical use of prescription opioids among entrants to opioid treatment programs, 2005–2016. Substance use & misuse, 53(2), 290-300.

Schoenfeld, E. R., Leibowitz, G. S., Wang, Y., Chen, X., Hou, W., Rashidian, S., … & Wang, F. (2019). Geographic, temporal, and sociodemographic differences in opioid poisoning. American journal of preventive medicine, 57(2), 153-164.

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