Emergency department visits for nonmedical use of prescription narcotics has increased 111 percent during 2004-2008 according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration’s (SAMHSA) Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) in a report released June 18, 2010.
“DAWN is a public health information system that tracks the impact of drug use, misuse, and abuse in the United States by monitoring drug-related hospital ED visits,” and estimated that “…1.6 million ED visits for the misuse and abuse of all drugs in 2004 and 2.0 million in 2008″ occurred, the CDC stated.
The report showed the estimated number of ED visits for nonmedical use of opioid analgesics increased from 144,600 to 305,900 visits, and increased 29% during 2007–2008.
“The highest numbers of ED visits were for oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone, all of which showed statistically significant increases during the 5-year period. The estimated number of ED visits involving nonmedical use of benzodiazepines increased 89% during 2004–2008 (from 143,500 to 271,700 visits) and 24% during 2007-2008.” according to the CDC.
Prescription drugs have been on a killing spree, with opiates and benzos as the particular drugs responsible, and it is not getting any better. In fact, you have to wonder about the prescribing practices of many physicians, and Big Pharma pounding on physician’s doors to push these drugs on to pharmacies.
Trends and Patterns of Drug Use
CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2010
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, (KFF), spending in the U.S. for legal prescription drugs was $234.1 billion in 2008. That is almost 6 times the amount spent in 1990. “The number of prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. in 2009 increased 2.1 percent (from 3.8 to 3.9 billion),” stated KFF.
Of course, most of these prescriptions were used for legitimate purposes. However, you can bet that many were diverted for illicit use, and prescribed by pill mills.
“The relative magnitudes of the rates shown generally reflect prescription volumes. For example, the benzodiazepine with the highest number of ED visits, alprazolam, was the most prescribed benzodiazepine in the United States in 2008, with an estimated 44 million prescriptions. However, some exceptions exist: hydrocodone was prescribed nearly 124 million times and oxycodone nearly 45 million times in 2008, but hydrocodone ED rates were not higher than oxycodone ED rates. The high frequency of multidrug involvement is a reflection of the tendency of persons who abuse drugs to combine them to moderate or enhance their effects. The lower proportion of single-drug ED visits among benzodiazepine ED visits compared with opioid analgesic visits is consistent with the relative rarity of a benzodiazepine being the sole drug involved in a fatal overdose.” (See DAWN, and Hall AJ, Logan JE, Toblin RL, et al. Patterns of abuse among unintentional pharmaceutical overdose fatalities. JAMA 2008;300:2613–20)
The increases in the nonmedical use of prescription drugs is a testament to the inadequate prevention measures, patient education, drug education efforts in both the schools, and at home, as well as effective drug treatment methods that have a significant impact on relapse rates.
Also needed are universal state prescription drug monitoring programs that can track insurance claims information for signs of inappropriate use of these drugs by patients as the CDC mentioned.
Unfortunately, the relapse rates for opiate addiction are extremely high, and benzos are right behind them. These two drugs are often taken together, and continue to cause both overdoses as well as deaths.
The time has come to divert substantial amounts of money away from the lost “war on drugs” to prevention, intervention, drug education, and treatment
