Pubdate: Sat, 23 Sep 2017 Source: St. Thomas Times-Journal (CN ON) Copyright: 2017 Sun Media Contact: http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/letters Website: http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/953 Author: Laura Broadley Page: A2 OPIOID EPIDEMIC TAKING TOLL ON EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS The opioid crisis plaguing much of Canada has made its mark on southwestern Ontario's emergency rooms. Visits to the region's emergency rooms for opioid overdoses went up almost 28 per cent from 281 in 2015 to 359 in 2016, according to statistics recently released by Public Health Ontario. Divided by health unit, Chatham-Kent, and Lambton and Huron numbers actually dipped in 2016 compared to 2015 while Elgin-St. Thomas, Middlesex-London and Oxford numbers skyrocketed. "We've seen high rates of overdose here for several years. We've seen the hospital rates go up," said Dr. Chris Mackie, medical officer of health for the London-Middlesex Health Unit. The same set of statistics showed that visits to the emergency department for opioid overdoses more than doubled from January to March of 2017 in the Elgin-St. Thomas area compared to the same period last year. While in the London-Middlesex area, numbers for that period dropped from 43 in 2016 to 35 in 2017. Mackie said the most concerning thing is that there was a peak of opioid overdose deaths in 2012 about a year or so after the hospitalization rates went up. "I'm concerned that we may see that peak of deaths come up again in the next year or two," Mackie said. Opioid related deaths in southwestern Ontario went up by about 10 per cent from 2015 to 2016. The brain quickly develops a tolerance to opioids. Eventually the dose a person needs to get the same "high" approaches the overdose levels, Mackie said. "If what we're seeing is people using more opioids now then we could very well see that same pattern where people use more until we have another spate of overdose deaths," Mackie said. Mackie said there are two major strategies the Middlesex-London Health Unit is working on currently. The first is distributing the antidote to opioids, naloxone. "We know the most likely people to be present at an overdose are other users. It's a very empowering model," Mackie said. Mackie said there are assumptions that if you give drug users naloxone they will use more, but he said that's not the case. "In fact the opposite is true," Mackie said. Once you give a person a sense of control they tend to be more responsible with their drug use and there are less overdoses, Mackie added. Another harm reduction strategy the health unit is employing is looking at supervised injection sites, which has trained people in locations where this activity is happening in a safe, controlled environment. The idea is to get the drug use off the streets, Mackie said. Dr. Joyce Lock, medical officer of health for Elgin-St. Thomas Public Health, said they've seen a trend over the last 10 years of opioid related visits to the hospital. "The rates are still quite low," Lock said. Lock said the number of prescriptions for opioids over those years has gone up, which has contributed to the problem. "I'm not that surprised about it all," Lock said. Trends across the province show that southwestern Ontario isn't the only region struggling with opioid related overdoses at emergency departments. From April to June of 2017 there were 1,898 visits to the emergency rooms of Ontario hospitals from opioid related overdoses up almost 78 per cent from 1,069 visits during the same period last year. - --------------------------------------------------- [sidebar] Opioid related deaths by health unit 2016 2015 Chatham-Kent 3 3 Elgin-St. Thomas 5 4 Huron County 4 2 Lambton 5 11 Middlesex-London 30 25 Oxford County 7 4 Source: Public Health Ontario - --- --- --- Opioid related visits to the emergency department 2016 2015 Chatham-Kent 33 38 Elgin-St. Thomas 41 28 Huron County 11 12 Lambton 47 53 Middlesex-London 188 129 Oxford County 39 21 Source: Public Health Ontario - --- --- --- Opioid related hospitalizations 2016 2015 Chatham-Kent 32 21 Elgin-St. Thomas 35 14 Huron County 12 12 Lambton 47 31 Middlesex-London 108 91 Oxford County 21 15 Source: Public Health Ontario - --- MAP posted-by: Matt