The Opioid addiction epidemic is defined by the widespread increase in the consumption of both non-prescribed and prescribed drugs of said category in Canada and the United States. It began during the period of the late 1990s and has sadly maintained an ongoing presence through the first two decades of the new millennium. These drugs belong to a diverse classification of painkillers which have moderate to strong effects on the user; several examples including Vicodin (otherwise known as hydrocodone), oxycodone (often traded as Percocet or OxyContin), and more dangerous opiates such as heroin and morphine.
To search this topic and gather information, I utilized three different search engines including Google Scholar, ProQuest, and the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). The first engine, belonging to the most powerful search tool in the world, is perhaps the laymen for the fact that it holds the largest database of all 3 mentioned. Furthermore, it allows seamless sorting capabilities through either relevance or date and allows the inclusion or exclusion of patents and citations; making it easy for researchers to discover and give credit to other bodies of work (Google Scholar, n.d.). However, the best feature it allows for is the ability to search at minimum release times. For example, in the event I desire to search for a topic with sources no older than 5 years, Google Scholar allows me to do this (Google Scholar, n.d.). Unfortunately, it cannot account for the fact that many sources only provide an abstract and gate the article behind a pay-wall.
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Conversely, ProQuest proved incredibly faulty, as when searching this topic I found absolutely no information or articles (ProQuest, n.d.). Despite this, the convenience of narrowing results throughout all site content, blog posts, or news is a nice touch (ProQuest, n.d.). However, it is unnecessary for research purposes in my opinion. ERIC failed in a nearly identical way, as when I searched the topic I found only 1 result which included a case study that encompassed the epidemic in a unique location around the world (ERIC, 2017). Regardless, ERIC is superior to ProQuest for the fact it allows you to filter peer reviewed articles only and is better than Google Scholar with respect to filtering articles that include the entire research publication beyond the abstract (ERIC, 2017).
- ERIC. (2017). Opioid Addiction Crisis Search Results. Retrieved February 3, 2018, from https://eric.ed.gov/?q=Opioid Addiction Crisis
- Google Scholar. (n.d.). Opioid Addiction Crisis Articles. Retrieved February 3, 2018, from https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C21&q=opioid addiction crisis&btnG=&oq=
- ProQuest. (n.d.). Search Results for: “Opiod Addiction Crisis”. Retrieved February 3, 2018, from http://www.proquest.com/search/?searchKeyword=Opiod Addiction Crisis
