STAT+: Opioid prescribing has dropped dramatically since 2011, but experts say there’s ‘more to go’
Although the opioid crisis in the U.S. continues to make headlines, a new analysis finds that prescription opioid use has dropped by 60% since 2011 — when prescribing was highest— and by the end of this year, usage is expected to drop to levels not seen in nearly two decades.
Per capita, there were 29 opioid pills per person in the U.S. last year, a 29% drop from 2011, even though the U.S. population has grown 5.4% since then. And this year, there is a 17% forecasted drop in the number of morphine milligram equivalents, or MME — a measure used to describe potency of the painkillers — from 2019.
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