During a recent study, it takes a deeper look at the association between opioid abuse and depression magnifying the need for increased access to mental health in the United States.
Due to the nature of the study being “extremely suggestive” of an association between opioid abuse and anxiety, according to Laura Schwab Reese, MA, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Public Health Graduate Program at Department of Health & Kinesiology, College of Health & Human Being Sciences at Purdue University, who co-authored the research study. For the most part, the research study concluded that a 1% increase in state-level depression medical diagnoses was associated with a 26% increase in opioid analgesic-related deaths.
” In places where there are high levels of depression, there are also high levels of opioid-related death,” Reese shared
Due to the epidemic spread of opioid-related deaths, health care specialists must understand and look further into the complexities of this addiction. The research study found and recommends psychological health is fundamental that will, eventually, lead to the correct treatment for opioid abuse and addiction.
The prescribing of opioids is becoming a serious risk to Americans and continues to be the leading reason for overdose deaths in the United States, accounting for around 43,000 of the 66,632 overdose deaths in 2016, according to the study. As the opioid crisis continues, it is approximated that more than 500,000 Americans could pass away in the next decade due to opioid-related causes.
Released by the drugabuse.gov website , “Every day, more than 115 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the total “economic burden” of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.”
” The research truly is suggestive to me that mental health is at the core of what is occurring in our society. Suicide is increasing. Opioid-related deaths are increasing. I believe it more supports the need for access to mental health care in the United States,” Reese stated.
According to Reese, access to correct psychological healthcare is seriously insufficient due to a number of causal factors.
” From a broad perspective I think the variety of folks who are able to offer psychological health care is not sufficient in the United States,” she stated, using Indiana as an example.
” About half of Indiana counties are noted as mental health scarcity locations. Folks in those counties who require a service provider are most likely going to have a difficult time discovering one. I believe that’s even more complicated by some other factors like insurance coverage status. It’s easier for folks who have excellent insurance to discover a psychological health expert. Psychological healthcare can be rather costly for folks who don’t have insurance.”
However, Reese said the problem does not just lie in the number of available psychological health care experts, nor in the quality of care, nor schedule of insurance. The ability to discover an inexpensive psychological healthcare company that is geared up to match the particular needs of the patient is yet another obstacle that people seeking help must conquer.
“Considering the restricted variety of service providers within a certain area and the inability of companies to react to certain requirements, it can be hard for patients to find a service provider who can treat the kinds of concerns they have,” Reese said.
As healthcare experts continue to fight the opioid crisis, Reese hopes psychological health becomes a central subject in the forward study of opioid addiction.
If there is more conversation about mental health in the talk of opioids, Reese stated, “Increasing access to psychological health care wouldn’t just favorably impact the opioid crisis, I believe it would have a great deal of positive societal-level modifications.”
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