His addiction started with a toothache. Why Ontario’s older adults are facing an ‘overlooked and evolving’ opioid crisis - Toronto Star

A new study from researchers at Unity Health paints an alarming picture for people over 55.  

John Pike’s spiral into a decades-long opioids addiction started with receiving light painkillers for tooth pain he was experiencing roughly 30 years ago. 

John Pike, 18 at the time, was prescribed Tylenol 3s, which contain codeine. The pills relieved the pain but something else changed inside him.

In his 20s, Pike was working as a highrise window cleaner, a job he held for  two decades, before he sought another opioid prescription, Percocet, for back pain related to his job. When his prescription was cut off, he started using methadone to avoid withdrawal symptoms and manage his pain.

But he eventually relapsed and starting using morphine, OxyContin, heroin and finally, fentanyl. Pike, now 51, a client at the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, said the decades of opioid use have ravaged his body, his relationships with his family and his housing stability.

“Definitely as you get older, it takes more of a toll on your body,” Pike said. “With fentanyl, it felt like it was eating me from the inside out.”

A new study from researchers at Unity Health reports that older adults in Ontario, specifically those over 55, have been hit hard by the fentanyl/opioid drug poisoning crisis and are one of the most vulnerable age groups in the throes of addiction. While Pike is just under the age group for the study, he recognizes he’ll be heading there fast.

The researchers characterize their findings as an “overlooked and evolving crisis among older adults” that the health-care system isn’t prepared for.

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