Local News
17 million less prescriptions given out but deaths remain steady
Gundersen doctor says give it time
A report from the Wisconsin Prescription Drug Monitoring program shows that 17 million less prescriptions were given out between April and June of this year.
It’s a 12-percent decrease from last year though the deaths haven’t kept pace.
Chris Eberlein, an ER doctor at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, says people should give it time.
“This really only took effect in the last years,” he said. “Reduction is really going to make an impact on fewer people in the future becoming addicted to these opioides.
“We still have this large volume of people that are already addicted and still using them.”
Eberlein added that they are always trying to evaluate their prescribing practices and the monitoring program increased their vigilance
“Thirty was the number but when they followed up these patients, a lot of them were only using 8 or 10,” Eberlein said. “So we were much over prescribing.”
