Fuzzy Opioid Math and Media Theatrics

By Roger Chriss, Columnist

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently produced a map that shows how prescription opioid use varies widely from state to state. Californians, for example, are prescribed opioids at about half the rate as people in Ohio and West Virginia.

The CDC also tells us that doctors “wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers in 2012, enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills.”

Because an epidemic is a statistical phenomenon, defined by numbers derived from data, caution is required when presenting and interpreting such results.

The media has been anything but cautious in using these numbers as fodder for sensational anti-opioid reports.

CDC GRAPHIC

“These pills didn’t just end up in patients’ hands; they also proliferated to black markets, were shared among friends and family, landed in the hands of teens who rummaged through parents’ medicine cabinets, and so on,” Vox reported, overlooking the fact that less than one percent of legally prescribed painkillers are diverted.

Some use the prescribing numbers to make a case for extreme measures to stop opioid addiction and overdose.

“In 12 states there are more opioid prescriptions than people,” David Brooks wrote in The New York Times, before suggesting an approach to addiction treatment that sounds like it came out of Les Misérables.

“Something like half of all sufferers drop out of treatment within a few months, so it might be worth thinking about involuntary commitment,” Brooks said.

“Legally, by prescription, we have created an epidemic of death,” chimed in New Hampshire attorney Cecie Hartigan in an op/ed published by the Concord Monitor.  “What point is there in alleviating pain for people if it’s going to kill so many of them?  Except in cases of end-of-life care, opioids should not be prescribed.”

Unfortunately, a prescription is not a unit of measure, and statements like these only add to the hysteria and fuzzy math.

An “opioid prescription” is as imprecise as a “bottle of alcohol.” Obviously, a bottle may be small or large, and the alcohol it contains may be strong or weak. As a result, having a small bottle of beer with dinner would be unremarkable, but drinking a large bottle of vodka would be alarming.

This is the mistake in the CDC graphic and opioid prescription counts. A prescription is a paper or electronic document, specifying a particular drug in a particular strength given in a particular quantity -- which makes it unsuitable for statistical use. A prescription for 5 tablets of 50 mg of tramadol cannot be usefully compared with a prescription for 30 tablets of 25 mg of oxycodone.

The CDC’s fuzzy math paves the way for a lot of confusion. Media reports give dramatic percentages of people using prescription opioids, warning of dire consequences from even a few pills.

“If patients get their hands on a second dose, one out of seven will form an addiction. In the event that patients must take a long-acting opioid, about 25% will still be using the drug one year later,” Dr. Manny Alvarez wrote in the Fox News website, apparently unaware less than two percent of people prescribed opioids actually become long term users.  

National Public Radio reported that 57% of American adults in a recent poll said they had been prescribed a narcotic painkiller, and then went on to claim that “as many as 1 in 4 people who use opioid painkillers get addicted to them.”

There are 242 million adults in the U.S. population, so if 57% were prescribed opioids and one fourth of them became addicted, that would give us 34.5 million people addicted to painkillers. This is clearly not the case.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine reports that there are approximately 2 million prescription opioid addicts. These people need treatment, not media theatrics.

Moreover, 259 million prescriptions does not mean that 259 million people have a year’s supply of an opioid. In most cases, people receive a short course of a weak opioid, enough to help with acute pain after trauma or surgery.

As for long-term opioid use, the National Institutes of Health states that “an estimated 5 to 8 million Americans use opioids for long-term management.” Studies show that only a small percentage become addicted to their medication.

Surely we don’t need opioid detention centers or opioid prohibition. That would not help the people struggling with opioid addiction or people living with chronic pain disorders.

Ignore the fuzzy opioid math and related theatrics, and focus on the 2 million people struggling with opioid addiction and the 5 to 8 million people living with chronic pain conditions. They deserve our care and consideration, and certainly won’t benefit from media melodrama.

Roger Chriss suffers from Ehlers Danlos syndrome and is a proud member of the Ehlers-Danlos Society.

Roger is a technical consultant in Washington state, where he specializes in mathematics and research.

The information in this column should not be considered as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is for informational purposes only and represents the author’s opinions alone. It does not inherently express or reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of Pain News Network.