Is the Opioid Crisis a Mental and Physical Health Epidemic? Assessing the Connections using Official and Survey Data

Abstract

The opioid crisis has been slowly building for the last decade, and it has resulted in widespread damage to our communities, to families, and to our country more broadly. However, many addicts begin using opioids under the watchful eye of their physicians for physical pain management, and shame, stigma, and self-medication can further the use of these drugs in order to assuage physical problems and act as a coping mechanism for mental health problems. This project will investigate the connection between physical and mental health and rates of opioid abuse. It will use both official data sources like the Hospital Community Utilization Project (HCUP), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and Vital Statistics and survey data like the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and the National Epidemiological Survey for Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) to assess physical and mental health as well as their connection to opioid abuse. We expect to find that there will be a robust connection between these variables, and the implications of our findings will be discussed. (From the FSC 2018 Program)