Opioid prescription rates higher in central and western New York
A new report from the New York State Health Foundation examines how the rates of opioid prescriptions vary among counties. The highest rates since 2010 of opioid prescribing have tended to be in central and northern New York. Areas with higher rates tend to have populations that are smaller and older, high rates of hospital utilization and low populations of racial and ethnic minorities.
Brooklyn had the lowest overall rate of opioid prescribing, with one-quarter of the rate of high-ranking counties. Sullivan County, with a population 77,500, had the highest rate, closely followed by Chemung, Warren, Niagara and Chautauqua counties.
But it’s worth noting that Brooklyn had one of the highest overall rates of commitments to state-approved rehab facilities for opiods — more than 7,000 last year, according to an October report from the state Department of Health. Since these figures are per capita, the total volume of prescription opioids in Brooklyn is much higher. But the report does show illustrate how high rates of opiod prescriptions do cluster in western New York and the Hudson Valley:
The report only details legally-obtained opioids but this information can be helpful in determining how areas of the state are vulnerable to the opioid crisis in different ways. While some counties have rates of opioid prescribing that are relatively high, no county appears immune. The fact that opioids are still being prescribed at such high rates, especially in rural, relatively lightly-populated areas also suggests that opioid addiction could remain a growing problem for some time. As a recent New Yorker article details, it’s only been in the last two decades that doctors have been willing to prescribe such heavy painkillers for a wide variety of ailments – despite efforts from some in the pharaceutical company to obscure the addiction risk that opioids carry.
This report shows that rates of opioids precriptions has gone in some counties, but for others the crisis remains on the rise.