美国国家公共电台 NPR Opioid Prescriptions Falling But Remain Too High, CDC Says

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Doctors have gotten more cautious about prescribing opioids for pain. But too many patients are still getting the addictive¹ drugs so says a new report for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein has more.

ROB STEIN, BYLINE²: As everyone knows, the nation is in the midst of an opioid crisis. Millions of Americans are hooked on the prescription³ painkillers⁴, and thousands are dying from overdoses. So Anne Schuchat, the CDC's acting⁵ director, says the agency wanted to see if things were getting any better.

ANNE SCHUCHAT: And we have good news. Half of the counties in the United States saw a drop in the amount of opioids that was being prescribed from 2010 to 2015. There was overall an 18 percent drop in prescribing.

STEIN: And the average dose that doctors are prescribing has also dropped, which is more good news, she says. Now the bad news - U.S. doctors are still prescribing three times more opioids than in 1999 and three times more than doctors in Europe.

SCHUCHAT: Overall, the level of prescribing today - it's enough that every American would be medicated around the clock for three weeks. So that's a lot of opioid use.

STEIN: And doctors are actually writing their patients prescriptions⁶ that last longer.

SCHUCHAT: The bottom line is that too many are still getting too much for too long, and that is driving our problem with drug overdoses and drug overdose deaths in the country.

STEIN: Because the longer someone has access to opioids, the greater the chance they'll get hooked. And the CDC's latest data show that there are huge variations in how doctors prescribe opioids around the country.

SCHUCHAT: There were six times more opioids being prescribed in the highest-prescribing counties compared to the lowest-prescribing counties, and that amount can lead to a much higher risk for opioid addiction⁷, overdose and death.

STEIN: The counties where the most opioids are being prescribed are scattered⁸ all over the country, though they tend to be places with more white, unemployed⁹ people with less education. Andrew Kolodny, an addiction expert at Brandeis, says the new numbers show that the campaign to get doctors to be more careful still has a long way to go.

ANDREW KOLODNY: We're in the midst of the worst drug addiction epidemic¹⁰ in United States' history, but we are still massively overprescribing.

STEIN: So Kolodny and Schuchat hope that more doctors will start prescribing opioids much more carefully and use safer drugs, physical therapy and other ways to alleviate¹¹ their patients' pain whenever possible. Rob Stein, NPR News.

1 addictive   

adj.(吸毒等)使成瘾的，成为习惯的

参考例句：

• The problem with video game is that they're addictive.电子游戏机的问题在于它们会使人上瘾。
• Cigarettes are highly addictive.香烟很容易使人上瘾。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

4 painkillers   

n.止痛药( painkiller的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The doctor gave him some painkillers to ease the pain. 医生给了他一些止疼片以减缓疼痛。 来自辞典例句
• The primary painkillers - opiates, like OxyContin - are widely feared, misunderstood and underused. 人们对主要的镇痛药——如鸦片剂奥施康定——存在广泛的恐惧、误解，因此没有充分利用。 来自时文部分

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 prescriptions   

药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划

参考例句：

• The hospital of traditional Chinese medicine installed a computer to fill prescriptions. 中医医院装上了电子计算机来抓药。
• Her main job was filling the doctor's prescriptions. 她的主要工作就是给大夫开的药方配药。

7 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

8 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

9 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

10 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

11 alleviate   

v.减轻，缓和，缓解(痛苦等)

参考例句：

• The doctor gave her an injection to alleviate the pain.医生给她注射以减轻疼痛。
• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。