Florida State Health Improvement Plan
Florida State Health Improvement Plan
Thank you for your post. The Nonopioid Alternatives is a critical piece of legislation in support of opioid overdose prevention efforts. The piece of legislation provides guidelines on prescription opioids and alternatives with the aim of reducing the high number of prescription and opioid drug overdoses. Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S recorded close to 92,000 deaths related to drug overdose in 2020, of which opioid overdose made up 68,630 of the total deaths 2020, and 75,673 out of 100,306 drug overdose deaths in 2021 (CDC, 2021). This means that a majority of drug overdose deaths in the U.S are related to opioid overdose. Besides the risk of death, the overdose and abuse of prescription opioids and resulting addiction contribute to graduation to other drugs such as cocaine.
The provision of the Nonopioid Alternatives policy provides both a framework and a technical framework to explore various methods that can reduce and prevent the overdose of prescription drugs. The legislation makes use of evidence-based strategies in opioid prescription to reduce the use of opioids in the management of pain and the risk of addiction and overdose. For instance, the legislation requires health providers to inform patient of nonopioid alternatives and present them with information on the benefits and drawbacks of such alternatives. The reduced use of opioids and use of nonopioid alternatives are advantageous to the patient and treatment outcomes. Research results noted that patients with lower opioid use had increased satisfaction with the use of nonopioid alternatives reducing the number of tablets taken and willingness to dispose of leftover pills according to FDA guidelines (Porter et al., 2021). Therefore, nonopioid alternatives can be used as options for opioids in the treatment of pain with reduced risk of overdose and improved patient experiences.
References
CDC. (2021, November 17). Drug Overdose Deaths in the U.S. Top 100,000 Annually. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/20211117.htm
Porter, E. D., Bessen, S. Y., Molloy, I. B., Kelly, J. L., Ramkumar, N., Phillips, J. D., Loehrer, A. P., Wilson, M. Z., Hasson, R. M., Ivatury, S. J., Henkin, J. R., & Barth, R. J. (2021). Guidelines for Patient-Centered Opioid Prescribing and Optimal FDA-Compliant Disposal of Excess Pills after Inpatient Operation: Prospective Clinical Trial. Journal of the American College of Su