Mac study finds most opioid addicts are women

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A study out of Hamilton’s McMaster University shows the face of opioid addiction is changing.

As addiction researcher Dr Zena Samaan puts it, “you’re looking at a picture, any average Canadian could really fit into it. You’re finding late thirties, middle aged people, working, have families, have responsibilities.”

Canadians consume more opioid pain killers than any other nation, and our dependency on the drugs is painting a new face of addiction – especially among women.

Research out of McMaster University has shown that heroin is now the drug of choice for only about 10 per cent of opioid users; the majority use painkillers instead. Over half of female users and over a third of male users said their first exposure to opiates was through doctor-prescribed painkillers.

Researchers studied 500 opioid users who were receiving methadone therapy at clinics in Ontario. Half were women – and most of them had never tried the drugs before receiving a prescription for pain relief. “Chronic pain, after child birth, whatever reason, tooth extraction sometimes, and they get a prescription for a Tylenol 3 or Oxycodone.”

“They start to feel better with the pain but they also start to use it because they are anxious, they can’t sleep, they have social difficulties.”

Laurel Whalen-Curran, an addiction counsellor with Womankind, says they’ve noted a similar trend in recent years. “Since about 2008 it has continued to rise. At this point we are admitting in our service about one in four women are presenting with opioid substance use.”

The authors behind the study say their results should be a wakeup call for doctors to moderate their prescription of painkillers, and for treatment centres to adapt their programs for an increasing female clientele.