Recovery Roads: Medical Schools and the opioid epidemic by Monica Robins Podcasts published on 2022-06-14T20:55:28Z Since 1999, the CDC says nearly 600,000 people died from an opioid overdose, either by prescription or illicit drug. Prescription deaths were prominant until 2010 when heroin took over, then in 2013 synthetic fentynal became the leading killer. Still 44 people die every day from prescribed opioids, and the vast majority of those addicted started with prescribed painkillers. This episode looks into how the medical profession is attacking the continuing opioid epidemic. The history behind how prescribing practices were the catalyst in the epidemic and how this is the fourth opiate epidemic to hit this country since the Civil War, but there’s something about this one that makes it different. The question is, what are medical schools doing to combat the problem and is there a risk of something similar happening again? My guest is Dr. Ted Parran, co-medical director of St. Vincent Charity Medical Center’s Rosary Hall. The only hospital-based addiction treatment center in northeast Ohio to provide a full spectrum of the most current treatment options. Dr. Parran is also a professor in medical education at Case Western Reserve University. The Case medical school is one of very few in the country that has been teaching medical students about substance use disorders since the 90s, but expanded the curricula in light of the opiate epidemic. Genre Health Wellness