Opioid abuse and death: Thoughts from Dayton, Ohio

Dayton and surrounding counties top Ohio’s list of deaths from drug overdose,1 and Ohio is one of 10 states that continued to see increases in overdose deaths from 2016 to 2017 (Table 1).2-4 Opioid and other drug abuse is very much a family physician type of problem, ie, multifactorial, involving medical issues, health system issues, and the social determinants of health. We are all aware of the seriousness of this crisis, but it takes on a completely different dimension when viewed from the perspective of a worker at its epicenter.