More than 40 people die every day from overdoses of prescription pain relievers like Vicodin, methadone, OxyContin, and Opana, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said the death toll from overdoses of prescription painkillers has more than tripled in the past decade.
“Overdoses involving prescription painkillers are at epidemic levels and now kill more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined, ” said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “States, health insurers, health care providers and individuals have critical roles to play in the national effort to stop this epidemic of overdoses while we protect patients who need prescriptions to control pain. ”
The increased use of prescription painkillers for nonmedical reasons, along with growing sales, has contributed to the large number of overdoses and deaths, the CDC said.
In 2010, 1 in every 20 people in the United States age 12 and older—a total of 12 million people—reported using prescription painkillers nonmedically according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Based on the data from the Drug Enforcement Administration, sales of these drugs to pharmacies and health care providers have increased by more than 300 percent since 1999.
“Prescription drug abuse is a silent epidemic that is stealing thousands of lives and tearing apart communities and families across America, ” said Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy. “All of us have a role to play. Health care providers and patients should be educated on the risks of prescription painkillers. And parents and grandparents can take time today to properly dispose of any unneeded or expired medications from the home and to talk to their kids about the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs. ”
Action plan
In April, the Administration released a comprehensive action plan to address the national prescription drug abuse epidemic to reduce this public health burden.
The plan includes support for the expansion of state–based prescription drug monitoring programs, more convenient and environmentally responsible disposal methods to remove unused medications from the home, education for patients and healthcare providers, and support for law enforcement efforts that reduce the prevalence of "pill mills" and doctor shopping.
Already, 48 states have implemented state–based monitoring programs designed to reduce diversion and doctor shopping while protecting patient privacy and the Department of Justice has conducted a series of takedowns of rogue pain clinics operating as “pill mills. ”
For the analysis, CDC reviewed state data on fatal drug overdoses, nonmedical use of prescription painkillers, and sales of prescription painkillers to pharmacies and health care providers.
The study found:
- State death rates from overdoses (from 2008 data) ranged from a high of 27.0 deaths per 100,000 people in New Mexico to a low of 5.5 deaths per 100,000 people in Nebraska.
- Nonmedical use of prescription painkillers ranged from a high of 1 in 12 people aged 12 and older in Oklahoma to a low of 1 in 30 in Nebraska. States with more nonmedical use tend to have more deaths from drug overdoses.
- Prescription painkiller sales per person were more than three times higher in the highest state, Florida, than in the lowest state, Illinois. States with higher sales per person tend to have higher death rates from drug overdose.
Tajuana Massey (Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:22:01 +0000): I might have to send this to President Obama cause our veterans are hooked on these pain meds bad. We have created a monster!
Joyce Stapp Roberts (Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:01:25 +0000): it seems that sometimes, the VA prescribes pain pills versus a surgery maybe because it is not cost-effective to operate, but cheaper to prescribe pills for pain?
Lionnell Covert (Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:13:18 +0000): not one word about publicly funded detox centers to help reduce the the continued addiction process caused by these medical and nonmemdical uses opiates. People with Crohn's Disease become addicted because of the physical pain of the disease. People with Crohn's are lumped together with the nonmedical addict as "drug chasers" when, in fact, the pain is legitimate/.
dr
Bill Vick (Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:15:32 +0000): 40 people dying each day is tragic but how about the 131 people that die each day, every 13 seconds of every hour of every day, from Pulmonary Fibrosis or PF. It has no cure (none) and there is no cure on the near or far horizon and yet three times as many people die from it each day than from drug overdoses and where is the article about that? Where is the concern for the over 200,000 people in the United States alone dying a horrible death by suffocation, the research, or even the hope of a cure. I never smoked, did drugs and lived an active life but I have between 3 & 5 years left after my diagnoses of PF this September.