The Opioid Crisis Viewed Through the Lens of a Black and White Camera

Abstract

The United States’ opioid epidemic is a national public health emergency. As opioid use has not been shielded from health care disparities furthered by economic, gender, race, and sex biases, discrepancies in the rates of abuse and access to treatment exist among non-white minorities. This narrative literature review is an evaluation of the literature centered on minority racial disparities in opioid use, abuse, and care in the United States. Racial disparities in prescribing opioid-containing compounds are staggering among non-white individuals. A historical review of opioid regulatory control is offered as an explanation for the cognitive biases demonstrated by clinicians. Governmental regulation is among the polyfactorial roots of racial inequity in the opioid epidemic. Literature describing physician bias and portrayals of racial and sexual disparities in opioid abuse disorders are presented. As part of the national response to this evident disparity, addressing these issues will be an important factor in curbing this epidemic and tools to assist in mitigating these obstacles are presented.