The American public health issue known as the Opioid Crisis has been reaching critical levels since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last two decades, more than 900,000 individuals have suffered fatal overdoses, and thousands of others are being treated under intensive care for conditions related to opioid abuse.
The devastating impact of the opioid crisis on communities across the United States must be addressed across all areas of risk. While there is no easy solution to the opioid crisis, there are some things that can be done to address it. AIS Healthcare, a leading provider of various services to the medical field, is a company actively engaged in the prevention of opioid dependency. Specifically, the AIS Healthcare services that address the opioid epidemic are infusion management and targeted drug delivery.
One of the keys to preventing opioid use disorder involves the modulation of prescribed medications. Proper dosage and administration are crucial in this regard. When patients receive the correct dose of medication at the correct time, patients are effectively prevented from developing a tolerance to the medication, which can in turn lead to them taking more medication than they need. With many synthetic opioids, tolerance is the primary factor that enables dependency.
Infusion care reduces the risk of certain side effects from intravenous painkillers; this is because the medication is delivered directly to the bloodstream, thus bypassing the liver and other organs that can metabolize the main ingredients into substances that strongly bind to neurotransmitters and receptors. This therapeutic strategy can help to reduce the risk of liver damage and other side effects.
The efficiency of targeted drug delivery is also crucial when it comes to avoiding opioid dependency. When powerful analgesics are directly administered to the spinal cord, they are more effective and less likely to short-circuit the brain’s reward system.