Painkillers Linked to more Overdoses than Cocaine or Heroin

Ivanhoe Newswire
Monday, July 24, 2006; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Prescription painkillers are at the center of a national epidemic that has been going on since the 1990s.

Over the past 15 years, sales of opioids -- or painkillers -- such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and fentanyl, have increased, and the deaths related to these drugs have mirrored sales. Drug overdoses from opioids have actually surpassed both cocaine and heroin.

In a recent study, researchers compared the death rates of opioids in relation to both cocaine and heroin. Between 1999 and 2002, death certificates mentioning heroin increased by 12.4 percent, and cocaine related deaths increased by 22.8 percent. While these numbers might seem like a big jump, they are nothing compared to the deaths related to opioids.

Between 1999 and 2002 the number of overdose death certificates that mention poisoning by opioid painkillers went up by 91.2 percent.

According to researchers at the Pain and Policy Studies Group at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine in Madison, the increase may be linked to the large quantity of opioids that are stolen from pharmacies every year. Much of the abuse of opioids is recreational, mainly by street users and individuals with psychiatric conditions, as opposed to pain patients.

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SOURCE: Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety; DOI: 10.1002/pds.1276