Background: The opioid epidemic has been ongoing for over 20 years in the United States. As opioid misuse has shifted increasingly toward injection of illicitly produced opioids, it has been associated with HIV and hepatitis C transmission. These epidemics interact to form the opioid syndemic. ...
Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999.[1]Physicians have been blamed for contributing to the epidemic, causing state medical boards and federal agencies to crack down on prescribing practices regarded as overly liberal. At the same time, physicians are trying to alle...
We propose that clinicians describe the co-use of substances based on the primary or intended substance used, the presence of a substance use disorder, followed by the secondary or incidental substance use. For example, a patient with opioid use disorder who intends to use fentanyl and ...