10-year long Pa. study sheds some stereotypes about opioid addiction

(Harrisburg) — A new decade-long study is poking some holes in the stereotypes surrounding opioid addiction.

The study looked at every patient at a Geisinger Health System hospital between April 2005 and March 20-15.

It found a majority of people admitted for an opioid overdose were women and the average age sat at 52 years old.

The study – which was funded by a pharmaceutical company that makes drugs to treat substance abuse disorder – also determined that most were unemployed, and many weren’t married.

Author Doctor Joseph Boscarino, a senior scientist at Geisinger, says the results should help prescribers make better decisions.

“So they could look back to Joe’s medical history before they prescribe, or while they’re prescribing that opioid and be able to see that Joe or Jane, it’s going to be an issue with these drugs and it will say that this might be a problem, you need to prescribe or co-prescribe naloxone and or refer them to treatment,” says Dr. Boscarino.

Boscarino says 35 percent of the people who overdosed had at least one mental health issue.

“It’ll help us to predict who would have multiple ODs, who would have more complicated and expensive ODs, and who would have more medical issues after they OD. What we’re doing now is to develop a prediction system that could predict who’s going to OD,” he adds.

Boscarino says prescription opioids like OxyContin or Percocet caused most of the overdoses for the people in the study, not heroin.

He says the next step is to look at why some people become addicted to opioids while others manage fine, even when taking the pills every day for months.