On March 10th 2022 at 17.00 in the assembly hall of the Faculty of Psychology, Dr Iván Montoya will give a lecture on "The overdose epidemic in the United States and its relationship with suicide". Clinical Director of the Division of Drug Abuse Treatment Research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA-NIH) (USA).
Dr. Iván Montoya is Clinical Director of the Research Division of Drug Abuse Treatments at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA-NIH) (USA).
In his speech, Dr. Iván Montoya presented the USA’s situation In relation to the two epidemics that we are undergoing: drug overdose and suicide. He described this situation as "syndemic", pointing out that there are two concurrent, sequential synergies that interact with each other and can be exacerbated.
On the one hand, opioid use is highly related to overdose deaths. From 1999 to 2020 there has been a dramatic increase in deaths, with 70,000 in 2019 and 92,000 in 2020. The most commonly used opioids include synthetic ones such as fentanyl. This opioid is a potent pain reliever used in clinics. It is also easy to transport and difficult for drug dogs to detect, as well as being very cheap to obtain. This makes it possible to use it for non-medical purposes. In addition to the overdoses that can occur by accident, there are also overdoses caused by adulteration of the product. The COVID situation aggravated the uncontrolled use of this type of substances, increased risk factors (anxiety, isolation), led to changes in the form of distribution and many patients went into withdrawal. The result was an increase in physical and mental health problems and an increase in overdose deaths.
It has been suggested that overdose may be intentional. The individual may deliberately intend to harm themselves, a situation that is difficult to recognise if the overdose results in death. It is estimated that in the US there are 47,500 deaths per year from suicide, one death every 11 minutes, and from overdose with the 2020 data it would be one death every 5 minutes.
The research conducted by the NIDA reports that these are “hopeless” deaths related to people’s lifestyle. Knowing the risk factors that are influencing this would make prevention programmes possible, so NIDA is promoting specific measures such as joint assessment in questionnaires, identifying primary risk factors and pain management education (initial use of synthetic opioids). They are also producing guidelines for the correct prescription of opioids for doctors and health care staff, along with campaigns for the removal of surplus drugs. They plan to activate telephone lines to collect the first calls with assessment protocols for both suicide and overdose. He stated the importance of informing the population of signs of overdose such as detecting very small pupils and being able to act as there are dispensers of naloxone (opioid receptor antagonist).
He finished his speech explaining the importance of reducing the stigma associated with overdose and suicide as a challenge to be achieved all together.
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