Citation

Duff JH, Shen WW, Rosen LW, Lampe JR. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service, 2022

Copyright

(Copyright 2022)

The full document is available online.

Abstract

Opioids act on receptors in the brain that are important in regulating pain and emotion. For centuries, opioids have been used as medicines to manage or treat pain. Natural opioids (sometimes referred to as opiates), such as morphine, are derived from the opium poppy plant, while synthetic opioids like methadone and fentanyl are made entirely in a laboratory. Semi-synthetic opioids, which include heroin and many prescription pain medications such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, are synthesized from naturally occurring opium products, such as morphine and codeine. Opioids—particularly those with higher potencies—can pose significant dangers, such as dependence and overdose resulting in death.

The Opioid Crisis in the United States In the 1990s, the intensified marketing of newly reformulated prescription opioid medications (e.g., OxyContin) and an influential pain advocacy campaign that encouraged greater pain management led to a precipitous rise in opioid use in the United States. Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that prescription opioid sales in the United States quadrupled from 1999 to 2010. At the same time, opioid misuse and opioid-involved overdose deaths increased. Between 1999 and 2010, the rate of opioid- involved overdose deaths in the United States doubled from 2.9 to 6.8 deaths per 100,000 people. This initial rise in opioid-related deaths is often referred to as the first wave of the recent opioid crisis ...