1 option
How the Reformulation of OxyContin Ignited the Heroin Epidemic / William N. Evans, Ethan Lieber, Patrick Power.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Evans, William N.
- Series:
- Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24475.
- NBER working paper series no. w24475
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.
- Summary:
- We attribute the recent quadrupling of heroin death rates to the August, 2010 reformulation of an oft-abused prescription opioid, OxyContin. The new abuse-deterrent formulation led many consumers to substitute to an inexpensive alternative, heroin. Using structural break techniques and variation in substitution risk, we find that opioid consumption stops rising in August, 2010, heroin deaths begin climbing the following month, and growth in heroin deaths was greater in areas with greater pre-reformulation access to heroin and opioids. The reformulation did not generate a reduction in combined heroin and opioid mortality--each prevented opioid death was replaced with a heroin death.
- Notes:
- Print version record
- April 2018.
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.