The opioid crisis began in the 1990s when pharmaceutical companies mass-marketed pain-relieving opioid drugs, such as OxyContin, with the false promise that they were non-addictive. This led to increased prescriptions, resulting in higher rates of misuse and addiction even among patients who used the drugs exactly as prescribed.

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The Opioid Crisis in the United States has had a profound societal impact, affecting countless individuals to the point where many people personally know someone who has died from an overdose. The situation escalated to a critical level, and by 2019, opioid overdoses were responsible for an average of 130 deaths per day in the U.S.

Opioid Crisis

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Drugs can have long-term consequences, which may not always be known during the research trials. 

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The U.S. opioid crisis can be traced back to the 1990s, when pharmaceutical companies began an aggressive marketing campaign for opioid-based pain relievers like OxyContin. These companies made false promises that the drugs were non-addictive, which led to a significant increase in prescriptions. This over-prescription resulted in higher rates of misuse and addiction, affecting even patients who were using the medication as directed.

Origins of the U.S. Opioid Crisis

To combat the opioid crisis, large-scale public health campaigns have been launched by organizations such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. These efforts, which have contributed to a recent decline in the crisis, focus on three main strategies: expanding access to treatment and recovery services, making overdose-reversal drugs like Naloxone more available, and establishing improved public health surveillance systems.

Public Health Response to the Opioid Crisis

A public health official is reviewing data from a large county. The report highlights a significant increase in fatal overdoses over the past decade, with the primary substances identified being prescription pain relievers and illicitly manufactured synthetic versions of those drugs. The report also includes qualitative data from community focus groups, where participants from various socioeconomic backgrounds repeatedly described the 'devastating' and 'widespread' impact of addiction on their families and neighborhoods. Based on this information, what is the most likely public health phenomenon being described, and which two pieces of evidence from the report are most critical in identifying it?

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