How likely is a patient to become addicted to prescription opioids? Can Suboxone, a medication designed to quell cravings for opioids, be used to prevent addiction? And what can we do to get unused opioid medication off the streets?
Northeastern researchers in business, health sciences, engineering, and public policy are working together to answer these questions in an effort to curb opioid addiction before it starts.
More than 47,000 people in the United States died from opioid overdoses in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And approximately 40 percent of those deaths involved prescription opioids. The National Safety Council reports that Americans today are more likely to die from an opioid overdose than in a car accident, drowning, or fire.