![]() In Europe, three-quarters of overdose deaths and 3.5 percent of total deaths among 15 to 39 year olds were attributed to prescription opioids. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a recent school-based survey showed a lifetime prevalence of 7 percent for the nonmedical use of any prescription drug. ![]() In Beirut, past-year nonmedical use of any prescription drugs was 22 percent among private university students, and 10 percent among high school students, with prescription opioids the drug of choice. In the U.S., they summarized information from data collected from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The researchers reported on data from school- and college-based surveys from Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. ![]() For example, from 2000 to 2014, there was a 200 percent increase in overdose deaths due to opioid use. The article published in World Psychiatry, the journal of the World Psychiatric Association, cites research finding increased rates of deaths worldwide from prescription opioids as high as 550 percent depending on country and time-period. ![]() Balancing a country’s need to make prescription drugs available to those in need while simultaneously curbing nonmedical use is one of our greatest challenges, according to a perspective article just published by Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and a colleague at American University of Beirut. ![]()
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