Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention question are questioning whether doctors are prescribing painkillers too often and sometimes unnecessarily after noticing a sharp increase in the number of prescription painkiller overdose deaths, especially among women.
A sharp increase in the number of prescription painkiller overdose deaths among women since 1999 has been noticed and reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number has increased fivefold among women. According to the report, this percentage has increased by 400 percent among women compared to 265 percent in men. Approximately 48,000 women died from prescription painkiller overdose between 1999 and 2010.
"Prescription painkiller deaths have skyrocketed in women (6,600 in 2010), four times as many as died from cocaine and heroin combined," says CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. in a press statement. "Stopping this epidemic in women - and men - is everyone's business. Doctors need to be cautious about prescribing and patients about using these drugs."
The report also revealed certain other statistics; since 2007, more women have died from painkiller overdose than car accidents. In 2010, deaths caused due to fatal overdoses among women were four times more than deaths caused due to homicides. Moreover, approximately 42 women die of an overdose daily, with more than 940,000 women receiving emergency treatment for drug misuse.
The reason behind this is probably because women experience more chronic pain than men. They are prescribed longer prescriptions for painkillers more frequently. Researchers suggest that health care providers should be careful and take precautionary measures to address this growing problem. They should discuss other pain relieving treatments with their patients and inform them about both the risks and benefits of taking prescribed painkillers. On the other hand, users should be responsible and use drugs only according to the prescription and instructions provided by their physicians.
