New Study Shows Fourfold Increase in Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions Involving Non-Medical Use of Prescription Narcotic Pain Relievers in Ten Year Period (1998-2008).
This dramatic rise in the proportion of admissions associated with the abuse of these drugs occurred among nearly all segments of the population regardless of age, gender, educational level and employment status.
The proportion of all substance abuse treatment admissions of those aged 12 and older involving abuse of prescription pain relievers rose by over 400 percent from 2.2 percent in 1998 to 9.8 percent in 2008 according to a new study be the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The upward trend also held true among admissions for which medication-assisted opioid therapies, such as methadone or buprenorphine, were planned. Since 1998 the proportion of medication-assisted therapy admissions involving prescription pain reliever abuse tripled from 6.8 percent to 26.5 percent.
Other growing problems associated with the misuse of prescription pain relievers were recently highlighted in a SAMHSA study released last month which found that emergency visits to hospitals involving the non-medical use of prescription narcotic pain relievers more than doubled between 2004 and 2008.
“The non-medical use of prescription pain-relievers is now the second most prevalent form of illicit drug use in the nation, and its tragic consequences are seen in substance abuse treatment centers and hospital emergency departments throughout our nation” said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde.
“Our national prescription drug abuse problem cannot be ignored. I have worked in the treatment field for the last 35 years, and recent trends regarding the extent of prescription drug abuse are startling,” said A. Thomas McLellan, Deputy Director of ONDCP. “We must work with prescribers, the pharmaceutical industry, and families to help us fight this scourge.”
