A quarter of New York residents have been prescribed opioids over the last two years, and of those, only half were told by a doctor about the risks associated with those opioids, a new Siena College poll has found.
According to the poll, released Sunday, 42 percent of people prescribed opioids were spoken to by a pharmacist about the risks of opioids, while 58 percent said they received no warning.
In addition, of those who have been prescribed opioids for pain over the last two years, 62 percent did not take the entire prescription and among those, 40 percent did not dispose of the remaining pills.
“With over eighty percent of New Yorkers saying that doctors over-prescribing opioids and allowing patients access to too many pain pills are at least somewhat responsible for the current level of opioid abuse, it is concerning, but not surprising, that among those that were prescribed, a quarter admit that they were given too many pills and nearly two-thirds didn’t take the entire prescription," said Siena college Research Institute Director Don Levy. "As concerning is that, about half say that no one at the doctor’s office talked to them about the risk of addiction,” Levy said.
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