Combating the Opioid Crisis: Essential Overdose Awareness

As medical practitioners in El Mirage, we often rely on the healing and preventative properties of medications to treat our El Mirage Emergency Room patients. When utilized as intended, prescription medicines can alleviate symptoms, keep body systems working well, and even save lives. We also take care to spend time counseling our emergency room patients on safe prescription management, as we’re altogether too familiar with what can happen when medications are not taken as prescribed.

With International Overdose Awareness Day happening this month, we want to share some important, albeit sobering, statistics to help raise our community’s overdose awareness:

Opioid use is on the rise. The number of people worldwide using opioids grew from 26-36 million in 2010 to roughly double that amount in 2020: 61 million
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Arizona ranked 15^th highest in the country for drug overdose deaths in 2020
In Arizona in 2022, five people died per day of an opioid overdose. An additional nine people per day suffered a non-fatal drug overdose
About two-thirds of drug overdoses are related to synthetic opioid use, such as fentanyl
And one statistic that holds some promise: the United States saw a 2% decline in drug overdose deaths overall between 2022 and 2023

Two of the most reliable ways for you and your loved ones to prevent overdose include only taking medications that are prescribed to you, and following prescription instructions with accuracy. Unfortunately, we see patients in our facility with regularity who don’t follow those recommendations, and thus suffer consequences. Opioids obtained in ways other than through a prescription often contain synthetic materials such as fentanyl. Synthetic materials can cause the same pleasurable effects as their prescription counterparts such as pain relief and relaxation, but they can also cause dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and urinary retention.

While we hope you never experience or witness an overdose, we believe it’s important to be aware of the symptoms, so you can seek emergency help in El Mirage if needed. Here are ten ways to detect an overdose:

Pinpoint (smaller) pupils
Difficulty breathing
Loss of consciousness
Slurred speech
Confusion, aggression, or other impaired mental status
Blue or purple lips or fingertips
Hallucinations or paranoia
Rapid heart rate
Convulsions or seizures
Choking, gurgling, or snoring sounds

It’s also important to keep in mind that an overdose can occur as a result of mixing medications that result in additive effects, increasing the effects of each drug. Because of this, it’s important to always alert medical staff to all medications and supplements being taken.

At El Mirage Emergency Room, our medical providers believe in promoting the awareness of proper medication usage, and do our part to administer medications safely and appropriately. Our entire medical staff practices the 5 “rights” of medication administration to ensure: the right drug, the right patient, the right route, the right dose, and the right time. You can be assured that when you seek treatment from El Mirage Emergency Room, you’re getting the very best in emergency medical care.