A new danger threatens Americans – death by overdose of prescription pain killers. Information supplied by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) web resource, Vital Signs, states that “deaths from prescription painkillers have reached epidemic levels in the past decade. The number of overdose deaths is now greater than those of deaths from heroin and cocaine combined.â€
Why is this happening? First, pain medications have become more available to the general public. As compared to 1999, there were 4 times as many prescription drugs supplied to medical providers in 2010. In addition, patients have begun to shop around for doctors in order to obtain more pills than needed, and some doctors provide much more medicine than a patient can truly use (CDC). Finally, patients may not realize that these types of drugs can lead to dependence and addiction.
As explained by the CDC, the pain relieving medications being abused are opioids and narcotics. You may recognize the more common names: Vicodin and OxyContin.
Living in certain states also affect a person’s chance of overdosing on pain medications. The CDC contends that Florida has the highest rate of pain killer sales per person, while Illinois has the lowest. This fact is significant, as states with higher rates of sales of these drugs have a higher rate of death by drug overdose.
Other facts to know:
• Many more men than women die of overdoses from prescription painkillers.
• Middle-aged adults have the highest prescription painkiller overdose rates.
• People in rural counties are nearly twice as likely to overdose on prescription painkillers as people in big cities.
• Whites and American Indian or Alaska Natives are more likely to overdose on prescription painkillers.
• About 1 in 10 American Indian or Alaska Natives aged 12 or older used prescription painkillers for nonmedical reasons in the past year, compared to 1 in 20 whites and 1 in 30 blacks (CDC).
So what can an average citizen do to avoid becoming a statistic? As with any medication, a patient should take pain medication only as prescribed. Don’t think that just because one pill takes away most of the pain, that two or three must be better. With this erroneous mindset, a person sets him or herself up for disaster. If someone suffers from chronic pain, he or she needs to seek help from a physician to learn about other ways to obtain relief than just from prescription pain killers.
Another way to help – one person should not allow others to use his or her pain meds. Finally, people should store medications in a safe place, and when finished with the product, make sure to dispose of the pills properly.
As you can see, Americans must be vigilant in helping to prevent deaths caused by prescription pain killers. Pain, whether the result of injury, illness, or surgery, does hurt, and it does negatively affect a person’s quality of life, yet care must be taken when treating this pain. You don’t want to trade pain for a worse alternative – death!
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