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The Threat of an International Opioid Crisis

  • Opioids (D Fiellin and J Donroe, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Addiction Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

While the epidemiology of North America’s opioid crisis has been well understood, a need exists to evaluate the potential for its expansion to other international settings. Thus, a comprehensive summary of the factors that have contributed to North America’s opioid crisis, their impact on global opioid markets, and relevance in other international settings is described.

Recent Findings

Increased opioid prescribing for pain management and the emergence of highly potent synthetic opioids (e.g., fentanyl) in North America’s illicit drug market have been identified as key drivers of its current opioid crisis.

Summary

Globally, trends demonstrate persistently high rates of opioid prescribing, rising non-medical prescription opioid use, and global opioid market diversification. Accordingly, significant potential exists for the emergence of an international opioid crisis. Prevention of this will require the adoption of evidence-based supply reduction strategies and a dramatic scale up of public health and addiction treatment interventions globally.

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Funding

SN is supported by the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). MES is supported by the MSFHR and the St. Paul’s Foundation. EW is supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program through a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (SMN-139148).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, 400-1045 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2A9, Canada

    Seonaid Nolan, Maria Eugenia Socias & Evan Wood

  2. Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, St. Paul’s Hospital, 553B-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada

    Seonaid Nolan, Maria Eugenia Socias & Evan Wood

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  1. Seonaid Nolan
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  2. Maria Eugenia Socias
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Correspondence to Seonaid Nolan.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Opioids

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Nolan, S., Socias, M.E. & Wood, E. The Threat of an International Opioid Crisis. Curr Addict Rep 5, 473–477 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40429-018-0231-x

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