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Abuse of Painkillers on the Rise Among Young Adults

By Hugh C. McBride

One of the more disturbing trends in drug abuse has been getting worse in recent years – and the downward spiral has not escaped the notice of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The abuse of prescription painkillers by young adults rose by more than 12 percent between 2002 and 2007, according to data released Feb. 9 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The same day that the SAMHSA report was released, the FDA announced that it will be meeting with representatives of 16 drug manufacturers during the first week in March to discuss the development of government-mandated risk-management plans for reducing the misuse of prescription pills.
SAMHSA Reports Rise in Rx Abuse
A SAMHSA press release that announced the organization’s findings provided the following statistics:
  • Adults aged 18 to 25 currently using pain relievers for non-medical reasons increased from 4.1 percent in 2002 to 4.6 percent in 2007.
  • Non-medical use of prescription pain relievers increased from 1.3 percent to 1.6 percent among adults aged 26 or older.
  • The rate of use among males aged 12 or older increased from 2.0 percent in 2002 to 2.6 percent in 2007 but did not change significantly for comparably aged females.
The SAMHSA report, which was titled Trends in Nonmedical Use of Prescription Pain Relievers: 2002-2007, did include at least one piece of good news: Past-month non-medical use of prescription pills among youth ages 12 to 17 fell from 3.2 percent in 2002 to 2.7 percent five years later.
The SAMHSA findings were based upon data that had been collected on about 405,000 non-institutionalized Americans (ages 12 and above) during the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) effort. 
The FDA Announces Action
In a Feb. 10 article by Associated Press writer Matthew Perrone, the FDA’s chief of new drugs said that the organization will be focusing on companies that produce extended-release versions of opioids including methadone, morphine, and oxycodone.
“We're focusing on these products because they generally contain very high doses of the drugs and need to be used very carefully,” Dr. John Jenkins said in the AP story.
“This is an ongoing problem that's getting worse,” Bob Rappaport, the head of FDA's anesthesia drugs division, said in the same article.
A Worsening Trend
The ongoing problem to which Rappaport referred has been worsening throughout the decade. On Aug. 4, 2008, Associate Press writer Tom Breen reported on dramatic increases in the misuse of hydrocodone, a semi-synthetic opiate that is stronger than codeine but not nearly as powerful as morphine:
  • Hydrocodone is the most commonly prescribed opiate painkiller in the United States, with 124 million prescriptions in 2005 alone.
  • The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has reported that legal retail distribution of hydrocodone has grown nationwide by about 66 percent between 2001 and 2006.
  • In 2005, hydrocodone was the most frequently encountered pharmaceutical of its kind in drug evidence submitted to the National Forensic Laboratory Information System.
  • All 50 U.S. states experienced increases in the distribution of hydrocodone between 2001 and 2005. In Tennessee and West Virginia, hydrocodone distribution increased by more than 100 percent.
Dr. Peter Cohen, the medical director of the Maryland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration, told Breen that the spike in hydrocodone use wasn’t due to effects that are unique to that drug, but rather is reflective of a rise in overall opiate addiction. “If you're an opiate addict, you're going to find something, based on what's available and what you prefer,” Dr. Cohen told Breen.
Devastating Effects
A July 24, 2006 ScienceDailyarticle reported on the increasingly devastating effect that the abuse of prescription opioids was having in the United States:
In 2002, over 16,000 people died in the USA as a result of drug overdoses, with most deaths related to opioids, heroin, and cocaine. Opioids surpassed both cocaine and heroin in extent of involvement in these drug overdoses between 1999 and 2002.
 
The situation appears to be accelerating. Between 1979 and 1990 the rate of deaths attributed to unintentional drug poisoning increased by an average of 5.3 percent each year. Between 1990 and 2002, the rate increased by 18.1 percent per year. The contribution played by opioids is also increasing.
 
To underscore the severity of the rise in the abuse of prescription painkillers, the ScienceDaily article noted that these drugs are involved in more overdose deaths on an annual basis in the United States than are either cocaine or heroin.
Help Is Available
As bad as the statistics are, prescription painkiller abuse does not have to result in a wasted life or an early death. Residential treatment for prescription painkiller addiction or dependence has proven effective, with once-addicted individuals able to overcome their reliance upon these habit-forming substances and pursue drug-free lives.
If you or someone you know is misusing or abusing prescription painkillers, know that help is available, and that a brighter future may be as close as a phone call or mouse-click away.