SCRANTON — Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine faculty members Brian J. Piper, Ph.D., M.S., pf Waverly, assistant professor of neuroscience, and Olapeju M. Simoyan, M.D., M.P.H., of Throop, associate professor of family medicine and epidemiology, authored a paper accepted for publication in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The article, “Trends in Medical Use of Opioids in the United States: 2006 – 2016,” concluded that, “With the exception of buprenorphine (used to treat an opioid use disorder) prescription opioid use has been decreasing over the past five years in the U.S.”
The paper is the result of the researchers’ analysis of data from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS) for 2006- 2016. Decreases in prescription opioid use are an important trend because misuse of prescription drugs is frequently implicated in cases of addiction and overdose.
