Opioid Crisis in Winston-Salem, NC
Professor Feedback:
Mara: There is no clear identification of option 2 in the title. Your outline gives a good idea of what you will need to cover in the final project and is detailed enough (more than the assigned 2 pages). It shows the logic of your analysis of opioid abuse in Winston-Salem. You cited several appropriate sources. It is clearly organized in Symptoms, Diagnosis, Cure, and Prevention sections, and is written correctly as an outline. APA is ok.
I. Introduction
A. Opioid crisis entails extensive opioid overuse from medical and non-medical prescriptions
B. This issue started in the late 1990s, following the increased prescription of opioids for the management of pain. It led to an increase in the usage of opioids, both prescription and non-prescription, throughout the U.S in subsequent years (Guy Jr, Zhang, Bohm, Losby, Lewis, Young & Dowell, 2017).
C. Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is not excluded from this opioid crisis.
a. Winston-Salem is a city in Forsyth County. According to Briker (2008), the town emerged following the merger of Winston and Salem towns in 1913.
D. Thesis: Opioid crisis is a significant public health issue in Winston-Salem, calling for action.
II. Body paragraphs
A. Symptoms
a. The issue affects mostly non-Hispanic whites aged 18 and above.
i. People aged 26 years and older are the most frequent users of prescription opioids, while the age group with the highest non-medical opioids use is young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 (Green, 2017).
b. The signs of symptoms of this crisis among individuals include dependence on opioids, prioritization of acquisition and use of opioids over other activities such as school and work, and weight loss. Other symptoms include lack of hygiene, drowsiness, isolation from family and friends, engaging in risky behaviors, being nervous, losing interest in activities previously enjoyed, and experiencing financial hardships (Green, 2017).
c. In the community, the symptoms indicate that opioid use has become a crisis include increased health care and criminal justice costs (Birnbaum, White, Schiller, Waldman, Cleveland & Roland, 2011).
B. Diagnosis
a. One of the primary roots of the opioid crisis is the initiation of opioids for pain management (Green, 2017).
i. Increased number of people affected by chronic pain pushed the use of painkilling opioids.
b. Continued use of opioids beyond doctor prescriptions to minimize pain or induce eutrophic feelings (Green, 2017).
c. Opioids are inexpensive to acquire.
i. When compared to alternative intervention for pain management such as physical therapy, opioids are relatively inexpensive (Green, 2017).
d. Other communities affected by this opioid crisis include Lockbourne in Pickaway County, Ohio, and Kermit in Mingo County in West Virginia.
e. Measures to address this issue by these communities:
i. Providing education and distributing naloxone (Palombi, Olivarez, Bennett & Hawthorne, 2019)
ii. Educating members of the community on safe usage, storing, and discarding of prescription medication
iii. Providing support for community members in the recovery process (Palombi et al., 2019)
C. Cure
a. Pharmacological treatment
i. Medications too address the issue includes opioid agonists such as methadone, acetate, and levomethadyl, opioid antagonists such as naloxone and naltrexone, and non-opioid medication including clonidine and lofexidine (Veilleux, Colvin, Anderson, York & Heinz, 2010).
b. Psychosocial treatment
i. Biofeedback, cognitive behavioral therapy, and psychodynamic therapies improve relapses and treatment retention (Veilleux et al., 2010).
c. Precision Addiction Management has been suggested as an approach to the effectively compact opioid crisis (Blum, Gondré-Lewis, Baron, Thanos, Braverman, Neary, … & Badgaiyan, 2018).
d. Increasing access to treatment and recovery sustenance would enable people with this problem to seek treatment.
D. Prevention
a. Prescription monitoring programs (Hahn, 2011)
b. Ending supply of unfitting prescriptions and illegal opioids
c. Enhancing maternal and prenatal care for females struggling with substance misuse (Hahn, 2011)
d. Supporting the youths through targeted initiatives to lessen youth misuses of opioids
e. Enhance awareness on the risks of opioids use and the costs of opioid misuse on individuals and the community (Hahn, 2011).
III. Conclusion
A. The opioid crisis is a huge public health issue, and thus, addressing this problem is a priority for communities.
References
Birnbaum, H. G., White, A. G., Schiller, M., Waldman, T., Cleveland, J. M., & Roland, C. L. (2011). Societal costs of prescription opioid abuse, dependence, and misuse in the United States. Pain medicine, 12(4), 657-667. https://www.asam.org/docs/advocacy/societal-costs-of-prescription-opioid-abuse-dependence-and-misuse-in-the-united-states.pdf
Blum, K., Gondré-Lewis, M. C., Baron, D., Thanos, P. K., Braverman, E. R., Neary, J., … & Badgaiyan, R. D. (2018). Introducing precision addiction management of reward deficiency syndrome, the construct that underpins all addictive behaviors. Frontiers in psychiatry, 9, 548. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00548/full
Bricker, M. L. (2008). Winston-Salem: A twin city history. The History Press.
Green, J. (2017). Epidemiology of opioid abuse and addiction. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 43(2), 106-113.
Guy Jr, G. P., Zhang, K., Bohm, M. K., Losby, J., Lewis, B., Young, R., … & Dowell, D. (2017). Vital signs: changes in opioid prescribing in the United States, 2006–2015. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 66(26), 697-704 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6626a4.htm
Hahn, K. L. (2011). Strategies to prevent opioid misuse, abuse, and diversion that may also reduce the associated costs. American health & drug benefits, 4(2), 107-114 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4106581/pdf/ahdb-04-107.pdf
Palombi, L., Olivarez, M., Bennett, L., & Hawthorne, A. N. (2019). Community Forums to Address the Opioid Crisis: An Effective Grassroots Approach to Rural Community Engagement. Substance abuse: research and treatment, 13, 1178221819827595. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6378421/pdf/10.1177_1178221819827595.pdf
Veilleux, J. C., Colvin, P. J., Anderson, J., York, C., & Heinz, A. J. (2010). A review of opioid dependence treatment: pharmacological and psychosocial interventions to treat opioid addiction. Clinical psychology review, 30(2), 155-166.
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