Despite National Call to Decrease Painkiller Prescriptions, South Dakota is the Only State to Prescribe More

Throughout the nation, doctors are being called upon to rethink the ways they are incorporating the use of prescription painkillers into their pain management strategies. Best suited to help lessen the effects of moderate to severe pain during the healing process, prescription drugs like oxycodone have helped countless men and women find relief.

However, these medications were never meant to be dispensed for situations in which chronic pain is the primary concern. This is due to the fact that the chemicals found in these drugs can be extremely habit-forming, and individuals who use them for longer periods of time will exponentially increase their risk for developing a chemical dependence issue.

Despite the downward trend in the number of new prescriptions for painkillers being written nationwide, South Dakota has seen an uptick, making it the only state who is not heeding the call to reduce the amount of prescriptions written for these drugs.

A recent article in the New York Times notes that for the first time in two decades, the number of opioid prescriptions has gone down. In the article, Dr. Bruce Patsy, a researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle who studies drug safety, cites a change in attitudes as one of the main reasons for the sustained decline, stating “the culture is changing, we are on the downside of a curve with opioid prescribing now.”

But this downward trend is unfortunately not being seen in South Dakota, where, last year alone, the number of prescriptions written for opioids jumped by 22%. This statistic is especially troubling in light of the growing numbers of individuals who are struggling with an opioid use disorder. Additionally, South Dakota law enforcement teams are reporting a surge in drug-related violence in communities throughout the state. Officials are citing prescription painkillers, such as oxycodone, and the illegally distributed opioid, fentanyl, as contributing to these situations that have proved fatal when firearms have been involved.

While organizations like The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and other health groups are encouraging physicians to cut down on the number of painkiller prescriptions they are writing, another problem has emerged. This is due to the fact that oftentimes, when an opioid-dependent person can no longer attain his or her drug of choice from a physician, he or she may be tempted to begin abusing illicit drugs like heroin in order to achieve the desire high.

As the opioid epidemic continues to spiral out of control in the United States, many doctors have become more conservative in the amount of prescriptions they write for painkillers. In addition, physicians in many South Dakota communities now have access to databases designed to alert them to any other prescriptions a patient may already have at any given time. These databases are intended to help curb the habit of “doctor shopping” in which a person will attempt to obtain multiple prescriptions simultaneously from different doctors in order to secure larger amounts of his or her drug of choice. It is hoped that the more widespread use of drug databases, in combination with an increase in primary prevention efforts and access to quality painkiller abuse treatment centers, will help inhibit more South Dakotans from falling victim to opioid abuse.