Opioids a Major Contributor in Overdose Deaths

Prescription pain killers are involved in more drug overdose deaths in the United States than either cocaine or heroin, according to a new study.

Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta, GA, USA) conducted a trends analysis of drug poisoning deaths in the United States, using underlying cause-of-death and multiple-cause-of-death mortality data from the CDC and opioid analgesic sales data from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA, Alexandria, VA, USA). Unintentional drug poisoning mortality rates increased on average 5.3% per year from 1979 to 1990 and 18.1% per year from 1990 to 2002. The rapid increase during the 1990s reflects the rising number of deaths attributed to narcotics and unspecified drugs.

Between 1999 and 2002, the number of opioid analgesic poisonings on death certificates increased 91.2%, while heroin and cocaine poisonings increased 12.4% and 22.8%, respectively. By 2002, opioid analgesic poisoning was listed in 5,528 deaths, more than either heroin or cocaine. The increase in deaths generally matched the increase in sales for each type of opioid. The increase in deaths involving methadone tracked the increase in methadone used as an analgesic rather than methadone used in narcotics treatment programs. The study was published online in the July 24, 2006, edition of the Journal of Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.

"The least we can do is make sure that the casualties of the war on drugs are not suffering patients who legitimately deserve relief,” said Dr. Scott Fishman, professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of California (Davis, USA), in a commentary on the research published in the same edition. Dr. Fishman concluded that drug abuse and undertreated pain are both public health crises, but the solution to one need not undermine the other.

Over the past 15 years, increased sales of opioid pain killers, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone, and fentanyl, have been accompanied by a parallel increase in deaths from these drugs.


Related Links:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
University of California Davis