By Nicholas Rondinone
The Hartford Courant
The latest study on the deadly opioid crisis shows women aged 40-59 received more of the prescription painkillers after surgery in 2016 than any other group.
“Middle-age women are not your typical opioid addicts, at least that’s what the public believes. But that’s not really true,” said Patricia Rehmer, a senior vice president with Hartford Healthcare Network who once served as the commissioner of the state’s Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
As the opioid epidemic continues across the state and country, doctors, specialists and politicians have warned of the dangerous pathway from prescription opioids to addiction. Despite efforts to stymie this, the study says 9 out of 10 patients still receive those opioids after surgery.
“It’s very difficult when somebody says they are in pain, post-op or if they have an injury. I think prescribers are reluctant to challenge people on that until they see a pattern and at that point it could be too late,” Rehmer said.
The study, United States For Non-Dependence, sponsored by Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc., reviewed prescribing data from 600 private hospitals and roughly 78,000 patients as it related to age, gender and geography.
The 40-59 age group faces a number of potential surgeries, Rehmer said. It is a time when certain cancers show up and when women may have hysterectomies.
And when middle-age women may ask for additional pain medication, Rehmer said, “it’s a demographic that people are more reluctant to challenge.”
Across all age groups, it was shown that women are 40 percent more likely than men to become persistent users.
The report says Connecticut dispenses 32 pills per capita, a relatively low number compared to other states. Alabama, the report shows, was highest at 72 while the District of Columbia was lowest at 23.
The study comes at a time where states, including Connecticut, are seeing a growing number of deaths attributed to opioid abuse.
Despite the findings, Dr. David Herr, co-chair of emergency medicine at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford, said his hospital sees more overdose cases among men than women.
“[Overdoses are] primarily a white male phenomenon,” Herr said.
The study contends that overprescribed opioids after surgeries has left billions of unused pills in circulation.
Herr said that often those who become addicted to heroin get started with prescription drugs, but they are not always the person the doctor intended to get the medicine.
Seeing these growing trends, Connecticut doctors and lawmakers have taken efforts to stifle the potential avenue to addiction prescriptions represent.
In 2015, hospital emergency departments adopted prescribing guidelines for opioids. The following year, the legislature passed a sweeping bill that included measures to cap initial opioid prescriptions for acute pain to seven days. At the time, Connecticut was one of the first states to take that action.
Earlier this week, the major pharmacy chain CVS said the business would limit to seven days opioid prescriptions.
The state has also increased efforts to get left-over prescriptions, often said to be abused by curious teenagers, out of the home and properly destroyed.
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