Health & Medicine
Heroin Abuse: Dramatic Demographic Shift in Drug Use Over the Past 50 Years
Thomas Carannante
First Posted: May 29, 2014 01:45 PM EDT
To much dismay, heroin use has become more common in the United States, especially in recent years. Now, various governors in the New England area have tried to address the problem by issuing stringent measures.
A few months ago, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick declared a State of Emergency in regards to the state's growing heroin problem, including both the abuse of prescription opioids as well as pure heroin use. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin was also so concerned over the issue in his state that he dedicated his entire 2014 state of the state address to the state's "full-blown heroin crisis."
According to research led by Theodore Cicero of the Washington University School of Medicine, today's heroin users are older (average age of 22.9 years), live in nonurban areas, and are equally male and female. These findings are significant because back in the 1960s, the average age of heroin users was 16.5 years of age, the percentage of white people seeking treatment for their heroin use was 40% (it's now 90.3%), and 82.8% of heroin users were men. This has all drastically changed over the past 50 years.
The Washington University School of Medicine study, "Demographics of Heroin Users Change in the Past 50 Years," was published on Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Through analyzing data on nearly 2,800 patients with a heroin use/dependence diagnosis, the researchers arrived at their alarming statistics on the use of the illegal drug. And the demographic shift is likely to remain a problem.
"I think the new generation of heroin users - predominately white middle class males and females living in suburban and rural areas - who need help with their heroin addiction will have difficulty finding places that treat addiction to heroin since most treatment centers in suburbs and rural areas tend to be private pay and will have little experience with heroin as a primary drug," said Cicero in this Washington Post article.
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2012, only 10.8% of people who needed treatment for substance abuse actually received it from a specialty facility, leaving countless others without help. This is likely to change, as governors in the New England area are setting the tone for other states. They've called for more expansive treatment programs for those seeking help and plan to supply law enforcers with Naltrexone - a drug used to reverse heroin overdoses.
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First Posted: May 29, 2014 01:45 PM EDT
To much dismay, heroin use has become more common in the United States, especially in recent years. Now, various governors in the New England area have tried to address the problem by issuing stringent measures.
A few months ago, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick declared a State of Emergency in regards to the state's growing heroin problem, including both the abuse of prescription opioids as well as pure heroin use. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin was also so concerned over the issue in his state that he dedicated his entire 2014 state of the state address to the state's "full-blown heroin crisis."
According to research led by Theodore Cicero of the Washington University School of Medicine, today's heroin users are older (average age of 22.9 years), live in nonurban areas, and are equally male and female. These findings are significant because back in the 1960s, the average age of heroin users was 16.5 years of age, the percentage of white people seeking treatment for their heroin use was 40% (it's now 90.3%), and 82.8% of heroin users were men. This has all drastically changed over the past 50 years.
The Washington University School of Medicine study, "Demographics of Heroin Users Change in the Past 50 Years," was published on Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Through analyzing data on nearly 2,800 patients with a heroin use/dependence diagnosis, the researchers arrived at their alarming statistics on the use of the illegal drug. And the demographic shift is likely to remain a problem.
"I think the new generation of heroin users - predominately white middle class males and females living in suburban and rural areas - who need help with their heroin addiction will have difficulty finding places that treat addiction to heroin since most treatment centers in suburbs and rural areas tend to be private pay and will have little experience with heroin as a primary drug," said Cicero in this Washington Post article.
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2012, only 10.8% of people who needed treatment for substance abuse actually received it from a specialty facility, leaving countless others without help. This is likely to change, as governors in the New England area are setting the tone for other states. They've called for more expansive treatment programs for those seeking help and plan to supply law enforcers with Naltrexone - a drug used to reverse heroin overdoses.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone