The crackdown on Florida "pill mill' appeared to have led to fewer deaths associated with heroin overdose, a new study says. The efforts of state officials who target these clinics over the past five years seem to be paying off.
Heroin overdose deaths increased over the recent years and state officials conducted mass efforts to curb these rates. They tracked and closed pill mill clinics where doctors dispense large quantities of prescription opioids to patients without proper protocol.
Worldwide, the abuse and addiction of prescription painkillers is a serious predicament. It is estimated that between 26.4 million and 36 million people abuse drugs like opioids around the world. In the United States, around 2.1 million suffer from substance use disorders linked to prescription opioid painkillers in 2012.
In 2014, a total of 47,055 drug-poisoning deaths involving opioid analgesics and heroin were reported [PDF]. It is the highest rate ever recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 15 years. Most deaths were linked to opioid overdose with 18,893 while deaths involving heroin were at 10,574.
In a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reported that approximately 1,029 fewer people in Florida died due to prescription painkiller overdoses. The study covered a 34-month-period after the state passed laws in 2010 and 2011 restricting the dispensing of large amounts of opioids in pain clinics.
"Florida's focus on these pill mills seems to have been an effective way to reduce overdose deaths in the state," study author Dr. Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, assistant scientist in the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management said.
Florida's increased efforts to stem prescription painkiller overdose involved oversight of unethical companies dispensing large quantities of narcotics may have contributed to lesser deaths, the researchers said.
To land to their findings, the researchers collected mortality data from 2003 to 2012 from the Florida Department of Health and the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics. These data will be used to estimate changes in the death rates from prescription painkillers such as opioids, heroin or any opioid overdose.
The researchers compared prescription painkiller overdose death rates in Florida before and after pill mill laws were implemented and North Carolina where no restrictions were imposed. This is to estimate how many deaths may occur if no laws were implemented. The data show that in approximately three years, around 1,029 deaths were prevented in Florida.
The death rate decreased each year as new rules were implemented to reduce pill mill businesses. In 2010, the overall death rate in Florida was 7.4 percent lower than expected if no regulations were imposed. In 2011, the rate further decreased by 20.1 percent and in 2012, it decreased by 34.5 percent.
"This study underscores that the sharp rise in prescription opioid overdose deaths has become a public health epidemic that is driven, in part, by major criminal enterprises," co-author Daniel Webster, ScD, MPH, a professor of health policy and management at the Bloomberg School said.
"Our new study demonstrates that the right laws and strategic enforcement can prevent addiction and save many lives," he added.
The researchers added that distribution of naloxone, a drug used to reverse the effects of an overdose, can help curb or prevent prescription painkiller death. The implementation of other methods like evidence-based and medication-assisted treatment programs for addiction linked to opioid use may help reduce overdose deaths.
"Findings from this study indicate that laws regulating pain clinics and enforcement of these laws may, in combination, reduce opioid overdose deaths," the researchers concluded in their study.
Photo: Eric Norris | Flickr
