Some media sources report on opioid use, overuse and addiction in the United States as a new issue – a modern problem that’s a result of pharmaceutical mismanagement in the 21^st century. While this is certainly a key part of the issue, it’s important to remember that issues around opioid use, misuse and abuse go back much further. The roots of the opioid epidemic in the U.S. go back to at least morphine use during the Civil War, while the use of opiates across the world extends back thousands of years.

Opiates in the “Old World”

According to an opioid article published in 2008 in the journal Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, opiates were first used as a drug in Mesopotamia around 3400 B.C. The drug traveled across the ancient world with traders and was used across Europe and Asia to treat pain. In 1803, Friedrich Sertürner of Germany first extracted morphine from opium. The serum was initially injected to mask pain and used widely across Europe and America.

Opioid Use in the U.S.

By the start of the 20^th century, a poppy derivative named heroin was commercially produced in pill form and used as a pain reliever, cough suppressant and for other uses. Heroin use spread in both legal and illegal forms until the drug was made illegal in 1924 in an attempt to control expanding addiction in the US population.

By the 1970s, President Gerald Ford acknowledged rising illegal drug use and set up a task force to study the problem, according to a discussion of opioids on CNN. Ironically, during the same period, some physicians downplayed the risk of addiction from prescription opioids. And in the 1990s, with the growing recognition that pain – and especially chronic pain – could be a debilitating condition, prescription opioids became a more common treatment.

This confluence of forces, including heavy marketing by pharmaceutical companies, set the stage for today’s epidemic. High prescription rates, diversion and misuse of legal prescription opioids have resulted in an extreme uptick in opioid abuse in the US in the 2010s. Recent efforts to curtail abuse by the government and medical community are now focused on education and supporting responsible prescribing to increase functionality in people who are at risk for and in the midst of addiction.

The Opioid Environment Today

The human struggle with responsible opiate use continues, thousands of years after it first began. The widespread availability of increasingly powerful opioids has amplified the urgency of the situation. Overuse, misuse and abuse of opioid derivatives, both legal and illegal, can result in reduced quality of life and even death.

Paradigm Outcomes advocates for a biopsychosocial approach to treating complex pain conditions, one that embraces evidence based medicine and responsible prescribing practices for the benefit of the whole person. Work with us to help change the course of the opioid epidemic – follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and keep up with our efforts on the blog.