Blog Section

The full story on Prescription Drug Facts

Linebacker Austin Box of the Oklahoma Sooners takes a break during a game in 2010. Box died of an accidental prescription drug overdose the following year.

Austin Box “gutted through” pain. Even after a bad blow to his back that ruptured a disc, the linebacker for the University of Oklahoma Sooners played through the pain that lingered after rehab.

He was upbeat, alert and seemingly at the top of his physical game on a three-day trip to St. Louis with his father in 2011. But the day after they returned, Austin was found unconscious in a friend’s home. He died after being taken to the hospital, at age 22.

The toxicology report showed five different pain medications and an anti-anxiety drug in Austin’s system — a cocktail that ended up stopping his heart.

In the months that followed, Craig Box, Austin’s father, couldn’t help thinking back over their trip to St. Louis for signs of an addiction. “I saw nothing that gave me any indication that this was an issue,” he said — no sign that his “all-American” son was about to become part of an increasingly American statistic.

Overdose deaths from prescription painkillers have quadrupled nationwide in recent years, rising from 4,030 deaths in 1999 to 16,651 in 2010. According to Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 125,000 lives were lost in the last 10 years to legal drugs like Vicodin, OxyContin and methadone.

In fact, deaths from prescription painkillers, or “opioids,” as they’re also known, now outpaces those attributed to heroin and cocaine combined.

But the problem runs deeper still. For every overdose death from prescription painkillers, the CDC estimates there are:

  • 10 treatment admissions for abuse
  • 32 emergency department visits for misuse or abuse
  • 130 people who abuse or are dependent
  • 825 people who take prescription painkillers for non-medical use

How did America’s drug problem shift from the streets to the medicine cabinet so quickly?

On Tuesday’s PBS NewsHour broadcast, health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser travels to Oklahoma — the No. 1 state for prescription painkiller abuse — to talk with the Box family about how Austin may have become hooked on prescription drugs and how he was able to hide the addiction from his family. She also sits down with the CDC’s Frieden to hear more about the scope of the problem nationwide and what might be done about it.

In the meantime, the CDC has compiled a list of 10 things you should know about prescription drug abuse. Questions? Leave them in the comments section below, and a CDC official will try to answer them on the NewsHour’s website in the days ahead.


Top 10 You Should Know About Prescription Drug Abuse, According to the CDC


1. Drug overdoses now kill more Americans than motor vehicle crashes.

Drug overdoses killed more than 38,000 people in 2010; about 105 deaths per day. Of these deaths, prescription painkiller overdoses killed 16,500 people; about 45 deaths per day. “Prescription painkillers” refers to opioid or narcotic pain relievers, such as Vicodin (hydrocodone), OxyContin (oxycodone), Opana (oxymorphone), and methadone.

2. Enough painkillers were prescribed in 2010 to medicate each American adult every four hours for one month.

The amount of painkillers being prescribed is growing significantly. In fact, the quantity of prescription painkillers sold to pharmacies, hospitals, and doctors offices was four times higher in 2010 than in 1999.

3. Deaths from prescription painkillers have reached epidemic levels in the past decade.

The number of prescription painkiller overdose deaths is now greater than the number of deaths from heroin and cocaine combined. And the number of deaths from prescription painkillers is growing fast. The number of deaths from prescription painkillers increased from 4,030 deaths in 1999 to 16,651 deaths in 2010. This means that prescription painkiller overdoses killed four times as many people in 2010 than in 1999.

4. Roughly one in 20 people in the US reported using prescription painkillers for non-medical reasons in the past year.

A big part of the prescription drug overdose problem is non-medical use of prescription painkillers — using drugs without a prescription, or using drugs just for the “high.” Most people using drugs without a prescription obtain them from people they know, who originally got them from doctors.

5. You can help prevent prescription drug overdoses.

Steps you can take include the following: – Use prescription painkillers only as directed by a health care provider.
– Store prescriptions drugs in a secure place and dispose of them properly.
– Do not sell or share prescription painkillers with others. – For people who think they have a prescription drug abuse problem, please contact 1-800-662-HELP to find treatment resources.

6. The prescription drug overdose epidemic can be stopped through effective public health interventions.

In addition to the things you can do at home to keep yourself and your family safe, there are also community and state-wide strategies that help prevent prescription painkiller overdoses. These include programs and policies used by health care providers, insurers, and states. Learn more about public health interventions.

7. States can start or improve prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and use Patient Review and Restriction (PRR) programs.

These programs can help stop this epidemic, improve the coordination of care for patients, and ensure appropriate care for high-risk patients. Find out more about PDMPS and PRR program.

8. States can enforce policies aimed at reducing drug diversion, abuse, and overdose.

States can pass, enforce and evaluate pill mill, doctor shopping and other laws to reduce prescription painkiller abuse. Learn more about which state policies show promise in reducing prescription drug abuse and overdose.

9. States and communities can enhance access to substance abuse treatment.

Effective, accessible substance abuse treatment can reduce overdoses among people struggling with dependence and addiction. Learn more about substance abuse treatment.

10. Health care providers should use evidence-based clinical guidelines and practices to promote safe and effective use of prescription painkillers.

The following guidelines can help:

  • Screening and monitoring for substance abuse and mental health problems.
  • Prescribing prescription painkillers only when other treatments have not been effective for pain.
  • Prescribing only the quantity of prescription painkillers needed based on the expected length of pain.
  • Using patient-provider agreements combined with urine drug tests for people using prescription painkillers long term.
  • Talking with patients about safely using, storing and disposing of prescription painkillers.

Facebook Comments
More

New York Doctor Head Of Oxycodone Ring

A New York City doctor has been charged in a scheme that allegedly distributed $10 million worth ofoxycodone pills.

“Well over half a million oxycodone pills were illegally sold in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, fueling the addiction of an untold number of people,” said Bridget Brennan, New York City’s special narcotics prosecutor.

Dr. Hector Castro, his office manager Patricia Valera and four dozen others were charged with running what the Drug Enforcement Administration called an “extensive interstate network of narcotics traffickers” responsible for the illegal distribution of a half million oxycodone pills worth at least $10 million.

Between September 2011 and February 2013 court records say New Jersey pharmacies dispensed nearly 500,000 pills of oxycodone based on thousands of prescriptions originating from Castro’s Manhattan office. In contrast, New York pharmacies dispensed approximately 75,000 pills based on approximately 600 similar prescriptions between August 2009 and January 2013.

The investigation into Castro’s alleged prescription sales began in late 2011 when an individual suffered a fatal oxycodone overdose in Middlesex, N.J., and authorities discovered a pill bottle with Castro’s name on the label at the scene. The deceased individual had received a prescription from Castro just a day earlier, authorities said.  (full story on ABC)

Facebook Comments
More

National strategy blueprint for tackling prescription drug abuse crisis in Canada

TORONTO – A national strategy to deal with the abuse and misuse of opioids and other potentially harmful prescription drugs is being unveiled in Ottawa today, a 10-year plan to tackle what’s being called a public health crisis of epidemic proportions.

The plan, drafted by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA), the National Advisory Council on Prescription Drug Misuse and other key organizations, aims to reduce the potential harms of such medications as opioids, stimulants and sedatives.

Canada is neck and neck with the United States as the country with the highest per capita use of opiates, the potent pain killers that include oxycodone, hydromorphone and fentanyl.

The national strategy, entitled First Do No Harm, is said to contain numerous recommendations on how to deal with Canada’s prescription drug problem. That could include stricter prescription monitoring and tighter supply chain control of high-potency opioids, for instance.

“I think it’s great really that the CCSA has finally taken this on, and hopefully the federal government and the provincial governments … and others who have a role to play will listen to many of the recommendations,” said Dr. Irfan Dhalla, a member of the National Advisory Council, who declined to discuss specifics of the report.

“It’s a great title because it illustrates that at the root of this problem, unlike most of the other substance misuse problems — alcohol, cocaine, tobacco — the root of this problem is a physician with a prescription pad.

“I think the report makes that quite clear, that if physicians prescribe these drugs more carefully, we will likely have fewer cases of addiction and overdose death,” said Dhalla, an internist and researcher at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital who has long spoken out against indiscriminate prescribing of opioids like oxycodone.

More than 1,000 Canadians will die this year as a result of taking opioids, often from overdoses, said Dr. David Juurlink, a physician and addiction researcher at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. “Sometimes they’re abusing them, sometimes they’re not.

“And for every person who dies, perhaps 10 seek treatment for drug addiction. And perhaps more than 100 — and no one really knows for sure — have a problem with misuse or addiction involving opioids,” he said. (Read more )

Facebook Comments
More

Study: Lax attitude on teens and Rx drug abuse

WASHINGTON (AP) — More parents need to talk with their teens about the dangers of abusing Ritalin, Adderall and otherprescription drugs, suggests a new study that finds discouraging trends on kids and drug use.

When teens were asked about the last substance abuseconversation they had with their parents, just 14 percent said they talked about abusing a prescription drug, said the report being released Tuesday by The Partnership at Drugfree.org.

“For parents, it really comes down to not using the power they have because they don’t think this is an immediate problem, meaning their own home, own neighborhood kind of thing,” says Steve Pasierb, president of the partnership. “They believe that this is probably a safer way, not as bad as illegal street drugs.”

By comparison, most teens — 81 percent — said they have talked about the risks of marijuana use with their parents. Almost the same number said they have discussed alcohol with their parents. Almost one-third said they have talked about crack and cocaine.

Some parents didn’t see a significant risk in teens misusing prescription drugs.

One in six parents said using prescription drugs to get high is safer than using street drugs, according to the survey. Almost one-third of the parents said attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications such as Ritalin or Adderall can improve a child’s academic or testing performance even if the teen does not have ADHD.

For Tracey and Jeff Gerl, of Cypress, Texas, their son’s drug abuse problem was a shock.

“We just didn’t know,” said Jeff. He and his wife had the “drugs are bad” talk with their son, Nick, and thought he got the message. They called the parents of friends when he said he was spending the night to make sure an adult would be home. They tried to get to know his friends. Despite their efforts, Nick started smoking pot at the age of 12.

In an AP interview, Nick said he and his friends often raided their parents’ medicine cabinets for anything they could get their hands on — codeine, Xanax, Ritalin. Some kids, Nick said, would have “skittles parties,” where the teens threw all the pills they poached from home into a big bowl, mixed them up and then took a few without knowing exactly what they were ingesting.

By 14, Nick’s parents knew something was wrong. The day before he turned 15, they sent Nick to The Center for Success and Independence in Houston for 7 ½ months of substance abuse treatment. It wasn’t easy on anyone in the family — Nick, his two younger brothers and his parents. Nick tried to escape twice, but made it through the program and has been sober now for a year.

“My family life is a lot better. I’m realizing there are fun things in life that I can do sober,” said Nick, now 16. “I got a chance to get clean and I have my whole life ahead of me.” (Read more)

Facebook Comments
More