Washington (CNN) Nearly three dozen doctors and a host of other medical professionals across eight states were charged for illegally prescribing and distributing opioids and other dangerous narcotics, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Those charged include two doctors who allegedly prescribed pills in exchange for sexual favors and a doctor who prosecutors say prescribed pills for their own use.

The Justice Department said in a statement that the charges against 60 individuals, including "31 doctors, seven pharmacists, eight nurse practitioners, and seven other licensed medical professionals," were part of a sweeping crackdown on health care fraud in West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Louisiana.

"The opioid epidemic is the deadliest drug crisis in American history, and Appalachia has suffered the consequences more than perhaps any other region," Attorney General William Barr said in the statement, adding that the DOJ "is doing its part to help end this crisis."

According to the release, many of the doctors signed blank prescriptions that their employees then used to illegally prescribe pills to patients, some of whom the department said were addicts.

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