Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

A commentary recently published in the journal The Lancet by Yale health experts reports that the current measures taken against the growth of opioid addiction and overdose and the consequent deaths should include how women are affected by this epidemic.  Women’s Health Research at Yale Director Carolyn M. Mazure, and Yale Program in Addiction Medicine Director David A. Fiellin, M.D. want other researchers, doctors, physicians and policymakers to see how women respond to opioid and how does the drug affect their health. “As we tackle this epidemic, we must be sure that action plans fully understand and include the influence of gender differences on pain, opioid use, and addiction,” explains Fiellin. “Women and men are not identical, and we must treat all people with attention to their specific risks and clinical needs.”

The commentary explained how women are much more sensitive to pain than men and therefore they are more inclined towards than men to abuse opioids by the means of medical treatment. Women are being prescribed opioids with other medicines more and more and that increases the risk of overdose of the drug . The statistics also rule out the same:- from 1999 to 2016, number of deaths because of overdosing on prescribed opioids have seen a increase of 404% in men and 583% in women. One of the researches done in the past shows that emergency medical specialists were not hesitant in administering the drug naloxone in women who already suffer with opioid overdose and that might lead to death.

The commentary also pointed out that women who had been previously exposed to substances they could addicted to were more likely to develop an opioid addiction than men. Women who were undergoing or looking for treatment for opioid addiction also faced a lot of hurdles when trying to find and maintain employment and housing- which also affected children negatively because often mothers are primary custodians. Most of the existing rehabilitation programs were created in keeping treatment for men in mind therefore women usually aren’t too excited about conventional treatment programs. “Both women and men are suffering from addiction to opioids across the United States, across Canada, and increasingly internationally,” Mazure concluded. “But women and men experience different paths to addiction and possess different treatment needs. It is imperative that we understand these differences if we are to help people and save lives.”

By Purnima

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