Polypharmacy is Compounding the Opioid Epidemic

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From The Lown Institute: The recent deaths of several beloved musicians, actors, and other public figures have brought to light the dangers of taking multiple, potentially fatal drugs.

“In a recent STAT article, Dr. Lipi Roy, the medical director of the Kingsboro Addiction Treatment Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., uses the case of musician Tom Petty, who died last year of an accidental drug overdose, to unpack the complex intersections between drug abuse, polypharmacy, and mental health.

Roy explains that, like many of her patients, Petty was dealing with chronic pain and depression, as well as a history of substance abuse. The different types of medications Petty had been taking to address these conditions – multiple types of opioids, benzodiazepines, and an antidepressant – further increased his risk of harm.”

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  1. Tom Petty’s death was NO accident!

    The title should be: “Mainstream Pharmacy is Causing the Poly-drug Crisis.”

    Calling this crisis an “opioid crisis” is a misnomer that leads people far away from solving these problems. Very rarely does anyone die from a single dose of a single drug.

    While it is a good thing that other drugs like benzos are now being exposed as a major factor in the poly-drug overdose crisis. there is absolutely NO ACCOUNTABILITY for these crimes of medical negligence.

    This article still repeats the lie that Tom Petty and all these other famous, and not so famous people, died from “…an accidental drug overdose.” These are NOT ACCIDENTS. When someone like Tom Petty is prescribed multiple forms of opiates AND TWO benzos, this is criminal negligence or manslaughter by a medical establishment and pharmaceutical industry that knows better and continues to puts its own power and profit above public responsibility.

    Richard

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