Non-white communities had significantly less access to opioid medications commonly prescribed for moderate to severe pain than white communities over the decade beginning in 2011, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.
The findings, published Jan. 21 in Pain, stretched across all socioeconomic groups, and suggest that communities of color may be especially vulnerable to the unintended consequences of efforts to reduce unsafe use of opioid analgesics.
From 2011 to 2021, prescription opioid use dropped by about 50% across the United States as a likely sign of attempts to reduce overuse of the drugs, previous studies found. However, these declines coincided with neighborhood pharmacies and healthcare settings also carrying fewer opioid medications, likely making it harder for people to fill prescriptions needed for pain management. For some, that may have required traveling longer distances to get the medication they need or not getting the drugs at all, the authors suggested.
