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BRIDGEPORT The on-going opioid epidemic was the focus of a day-long symposium for researchers, practitioners and students at the University of Bridgeport on Thursday, but much of the talk was about other ways to manage chronic pain.

Building Bridges: Implementing Healthcare Solutions to Prevent Opioid Addiction and Chronic Pain in Connecticut drew more than 165 participants and is the first of what Carol Papp, dean of UBs College of Health Sciences, said she expects to be an annual event.

We wanted to focus on (the) intersection of chronic pain and opioid addiction and how to handle pain, said Papp, who said the idea for the symposium came from UB President Laura Trombley.

The aim was to improve knowledge, practice and legislation concerning pain and addiction to help tackle the complex health issue and provide evidence-based solutions.

A committee made up of university and community members assigned to lay out the latest research on the problem pulled from a diverse pool of education and health care providers. With Bridgeport Hospital as an event sponsor, presenters came from Yale New Haven Health, the University of Connecticut, the state, the University of Pennsylvania and National Institutes of Health.

Mark Pitcher, director of UBs Health Sciences Inter-Professional Research, called the program a frank discussion about the crisis and the role for complementary and integrative approaches to pain and addiction. Included in that were both chiropractic care and acupuncture, which are both taught at UB.

There are other ways to handle pain, Pitcher said and more options for a problem that does not appear to be subsiding.

In 2018 in Connecticut, there were 1,017 accidental drug deaths, more than deaths by suicide, homicide and motor vehicle accidents combined.

A large percentage of those drug deaths was driven by opioids, heroin and especially fentanyal synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin.

The opioid crisis in Connecticut is greater than the national average.

Presenter Jane Ungemack, an assistant professor of Community Medicine and Health care at UConn, theorized that some reasons for the states high numbers may be because there is more disposable income in Connecticut, a higher rate of prescription drug use and, ironically, greater access to health care.

Although opioid addiction has been in the news for several years, Papp said information from the state and federal health agencies is constantly evolving.

Sharon Diaz, a licensed psychotherapist with a practice in Shelton who sat in the audience, said some of the information was new to her, such as the HEAL Initiative from the National Institutes of Health.

Diaz said in her practice she is seeing more young kids with addictions.

Overdose deaths have become so scary, Diaz said.

Linda Porter, director of the Office of Pain Policy and Planning at NIH, said HEAL is working with $500 million federal grants to focus on pain management research and prevention research.

There is work, for example, on vaccines that would help to prevent overdoses. There are studies under way in Ohio, Massachusetts, Kentucky and New York to pull together programs that can be duplicated elsewhere. And there are studies being done of pain who gets it, who is more sensitive to it, what treatments will stop it and how to get effective treatments into clinical practice and how to get pain management better covered by insurance.

Acupuncture, for instance, is not always covered by health plans.

Ungemack, of UConn, said while prescription misuse seems to be decreasing slightly, fentanyl abuse is keeping the states overdose rates high.

The medical profession has an important role to play but it is not the whole picture, Ungemack said. Only one third of overdoses are attributed to drugs obtained by doctors.

A larger percentage comes from family and friends.

James Gill, chief medical examiner for the state, told the audience that opioid deaths have put a great deal of strain on his staff and coroners across the nation.

He, too, pointed to fentanyl as the biggest culprit, saying it is often found to be a factor even in cocaine-related deaths.

Just a few grains can cause death, he said.

lclambeck@ctpost.com; lclambeck@ctpost.com

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Opioid Symposium hosted at the University of Bridgeport - CT Insider

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