Psychiatrist shortage by the numbers: The current workforce of about 45,580 psychiatrists must increase by 2,800 to meet today’s demands for psychiatric care. This works out to a 6.4 percent shortage. By 2025, that shortage could be as high as 6,090 psychiatrists, or 12 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
There are numerous health-related challenges facing rural areas of the U.S., including geographic isolation, an aging population, and a shortage of providers and hospitals, especially as rural hospitals close at unprecedented rates.
CMS updated its Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool to give users a more in-depth look at opioid prescribing rates across the U.S., the agency announced Feb. 22.
Among patients ages 65 and older, the rate of opioid-related hospitalizations jumped 34 percent between 2010 and 2015, according to statistical brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
West Virginia has the highest rate of fatal opioid overdoses among U.S. states, with 49.6 per 100,000 individuals, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Chronic pain patients don't fare much better taking opioids to manage their pain than they do by taking placebos, a study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association found.
One in 25 women hospitalized for a pregnancy-related reason tested positive for an illegal drug or a drug used to treat drug addiction in 2016-17 in Pennsylvania, according to a new report.
Fatal drug overdoses have fallen nationwide over the last six months, according to a CDC report. However, health experts warn against early claims of the opioid and drug epidemic ending.
The comprehensive opioids bill passed by the Senate and Congress includes a provision to protect opioid use disorder patients from a predatory practice known as patient brokering, according to The Washington Post.
Many people still want opioids to manage pain after surgery despite heightened media coverage surrounding addiction risk and the opioid epidemic, according to survey results presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists' annual meeting in San Francisco.