“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. ”
Overdose deaths from prescription painkillers have skyrocketed during the past decade.
Overdose deaths from prescription painkillers have skyrocketed during the past decade.
- Prescription painkiller overdoses killed nearly 15,000 people in the US in 2008. This is more than 3 times the 4,000 people killed by these drugs in 1999.
- In 2010, about 12 million Americans (age 12 or older) reported nonmedical use of prescription painkillers in the past year.
- Nearly half a million emergency department visits in 2009 were due to people misusing or abusing prescription painkillers.
- Nonmedical use of prescription painkillers costs health insurers up to $72.5 billion annually in direct health care costs.
Rates of prescription painkiller sales, deaths and substance abuse treatment admissions (1999-2010)
SOURCES: National Vital Statistics System, 1999-2008; Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS) of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), 1999-2010; Treatment Episode Data Set, 1999-2009
Read on at:
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2011/p1101_flu_pain_killer_overdose.html
