More opioid marketing may be causing more opioid deaths

Medicine.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Opioid marketing focused on targeting doctors can be linked to an increase in opioid overdoses in the U.S., a study published Friday found.

The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, say that the pharmaceutical industry spent nearly $40 million on marketing opioids to U.S. doctors between 2013 and 2015. Increased opioid marketing by county was associated with a higher overdose mortality rate the following year, the report states.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The report states the current marketing efforts could counteract national attempts to curb the opioid crisis, and suggests policymakers may want to consider limiting direct-to-physician opioid marketing.

"Policymakers and state health regulators should prohibit licensed health professionals from accepting any such payments or incentives from the industry," Linda Richter, director of policy analysis and research for the Center on Addiction, told U.S. News and World Report. "Although physicians might believe that industry marketing efforts have no impact on their prescribing choices, a large body of evidence proves otherwise."

Explore More
Marianne Dodson

Marianne is The Week’s Social Media Editor. She is a native Tennessean and recent graduate of Ohio University, where she studied journalism and political science. Marianne has previously written for The Daily Beast, The Crime Report, and The Moroccan Times.