Title: Describe the history of opioids in the United States.
Course: Medical Assistant II (14151-II) > Section: Examining Opioids

Description should include

- a definition of opioids
- an overview of opioids in the United States
  - legal in the U.S. in 1775
  - increase in popularity to treat soldiers during the American Civil War (1861-1865)
  - a 1970s-era rise in the stigma around opioid use; many Vietnam veterans returned addicted to opioids

- the shift in attitudes in the 1990s toward pain management and medical use of opioids, including the role of pharmaceutical marketing
- in the 2000s, a changing view of addiction from a moral failing to a chronic, relapsing disease

- regulatory responses to opioids
  - the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 represented the first restrictions on commercial use of opioids
  - the Controlled Substance Act of 1970
  - the role of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
- the relationship between opioid prescribing and illicit opioid use related to overall opioid overdose deaths
- an awareness of co-occurring mental health disorders
- statistics, trends, and demographics surrounding opioid use
- population health and other public health aspects of the opioid crisis, including its effects on family and neonates, as well as overall health costs
- concepts related to the history of confidentiality and insurance related to opioid use in healthcare.

Teacher Resources:

- Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records, Title 42, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) (42 CFR part 2)
- A Century of American Narcotic Policy, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Opioid Medications, FDA
- Understanding the Opioid Overdose Epidemic, Overdose Prevention, CDC

Process/Skill Questions:

- How are opioids created?
- How does society stereotype individuals with a history of drug addiction?
- What were the trends that contributed to the nationwide opioid crisis?
- How has the opioid epidemic affected emergency rooms and the first responder system?
- What were the initial uses of opioids in early medicines?
- How did pharmaceutical marketing influence the opioid epidemic?
- What laws and regulations combat opioid use in the United States?