New Data on Opioid Use and Prescribing in the United States

The United States is in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic. Between 1999 and 2010, prescription opioid–related overdose deaths increased substantially in parallel with increased prescribing of opioids.

In 2015, opioid-involved drug overdoses accounted for 33,091 deaths, approximately half involving prescription opioids. Additionally, an estimated 2 million individuals in the United States have opioid use disorder (addiction) associated with prescription opioids, accounting for an estimated $78.5 billion in economic costs annually. Proven strategies are available to manage chronic pain effectively without opioids, and changing prescribing practices is an important step in addressing the opioid overdose epidemic and its adverse effects on US communities.

On July 6, 2017, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that between 2006 and 2015 the amount of opioids prescribed in the United States peaked in 2010 at 782 morphine milligram equivalents (MME) per capita and then decreased each year through 2015 to 640 MME per capita. Prescribing rates increased from 72.4 to 81.2 prescriptions per 100 persons between 2006 and 2010, were constant between 2010 and 2012, and then declined to 70.6 per 100 persons from 2012 to 2015, a 13.1% decline. Yet the amount of opioids prescribed in 2015 remains more than 3 times higher than in 1999, when the amount prescribed was 180 MME per capita, and is nearly 4 times higher than in Europe in 2015.