Lauren Rose Gilbert, assistant researcher with Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center, gave a talk on campus Tuesday about the effects of a national spike in opioid drug use here in Wyoming.
According to information from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a new spike in opioid use has been sweeping the nation since 2013 with deaths increasing from overdosing on synthetic opioids.
“Nationally it’s usually a middle class white epidemic,” said Gilbert, “which is why we see it being treated, for the most part, instead of criminalized.”
While the U.S. is experiencing an epidemic, Gilbert said Wyoming is having a less severe crisis. With a state population smaller than some major cities, the effects of increased drug use are measured differently.
“In terms of public health, most of Wyoming doesn’t even qualify as rural,” said Gilbert. “It’s technically in the ‘frontier’ category, with some counties and towns having just a few thousand people.”
Taking into account these smaller sample sizes, the research Gilbert presented focused mainly on the amount of overdoses that had been reported, uses of preventative measures, and the steps being taken to prevent opioid abuse and help those trying to recover.
One of the largest aspects in the prevention of opioid related deaths, Gilbert said, is training and educating organizations about naloxone, a chemical agent that blocks the effects of opioids to treat overdoses. Gilbert discussed the advantages to having organizations like public libraries in Wyoming receive training to be able to administer naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan.
“The reason we see a lot of use of Narcan is because of how rural we are and transport times,” said Gilbert, which she found from a focus group of emergency medical responders she had asked about opioid patients. “Some people can see transport times as long as two hours to the nearest hospital. Another thing we learned from the focus groups was that these emergency responders titrate naloxone into these patients, enough to keep them from dying but not enough for them to come all the way out of an overdose when they might be violent.”
There are things you can do to help prevent opioid abuse or misuse, Gilbert told the audience.
“People have a misconception that just because a doctor prescribed something it’s safe for them to take,” said Gilbert. Opioids are intended for short term use only, she said, and cited several studies that found a combination of ibuprofen and acetaminophen can manage pain just as well as some opioids. Her suggestions to the audience included safe disposal of leftover prescription drugs and appropriate use any drugs prescribed by a doctor.
Gilbert gave short shrift to one audience question about resistance to promoting naloxone and other drug addiction treatments.
“Drug use is a mental health condition,” she said. “It’s a chronic addiction — it’s not something you can just criminalize and expect to go away. I think it’s crazy that people would object to something like naloxone that literally saves lives. You can’t really help someone if you just let them die.”
