The Opioid crisis in the United States remains to be an issue as data released today showed there were more than 1.27 million emergency room visits and inpatient stays in just one year due to the problem.
The figures released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) were recorded in 2014. They compared it to the 2005 data and found that there was a 64 percent increase in the number of inpatients due to opioid-related issues and a 99 percent increase in E.R. visits.
Maryland has the highest number of inpatient instances
AHRQ also found that Maryland has the most number of inpatient care due to opioid.
Earlier this year, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, Republican, also announced there is a state of emergency in the area due to heroin and prescription opioid overdoses.
A report was also released this June saying that opioid-related deaths in Maryland increased almost four times since 2010. One of the major cities in Maryland, Baltimore, saw 694 deaths due to drugs and alcohol in 2016. Due to this, the Overdose-reversal medication called naloxone was made available over the counter in pharmacies in the area. For the past two years, more than 950 people used naloxone.
Massachusetts comes in second
Massachusetts is the second state that has the most number of opioid-related hospitalizations. No data was released by AHRQ regarding the number of inpatient and E.R.
visits in Massachusetts. The other states in the top 10 list of AHRQ are Rhode Island, New York, West Virginia, Connecticut, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, and Maine.
Last year and earlier this year, photos and videos of parents who overdosed in their cars, in grocery stores or in their homes while their kids were left unattended were heavily shared by authorities.
They hoped sharing such photos would help lessen the cases of opioid overdoses.
AHRQ also named the 10 states that have the lowest inpatient and E.R. visits due to opioid overdose. These are Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming in no particular order.
Innovators hoping to use technology to bar opioid-related cases from increasing
This week, the fourth annual Maine Startup and Create Week conference took place in Portland. The theme this year is to seek new solutions to stop and prevent abuse. A group of innovators specifically worked on opioid overdoses who analyze human waste to see where drugs are being abused most in Maine. They also set predictive data to help patients cope with their addiction.
In Maine last year, there were 313 overdose deaths.
