Prescription Painkiller Addiction
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National Surveys on Drug Use and Health indicate that the nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers (analgesics) among persons aged 12 or older did not differ significantly among the years between 2002 and 2005. The number of persons who used prescription pain relievers nonmedically for the first time in the past year of the survey also did not differ significantly - - with 2.3 million persons initiating use in 2002, 2.4 million in 2003, 2.4 million in 2004 and 2.2 million in 2005.

Combined data from 2002 to 2005 were used to examine the patterns of nonmedical prescription pain reliever use in general and the nonmedical use specifically of oxycodone and hydrocodone products. Oxycodone products include Percocet®, Percodan®, Tylox®, OxyContin®, and other pain relievers containing oxycodone that respondents specified that they used nonmedically. Hydrocodone products include Vicodin®, Lortab®, Lorcet®/LorcetPlus®, generic hydrocodone, and other pain relievers containing hydrocodone that respondents specified.

An annual average of 4.8% of persons aged 12 or older (11.4 million persons) used a prescription pain reliever nonmedically in the 12 months prior to the survey.

Of the persons aged 12 or older who first used pain relievers nonmedically in the past year, 57.7% used hydrocodone products and 21.7% used oxycodone products.

Additionally, there has been an increase in recent years in the number of people being prescribed methadone for chronic pain relief. Methadone is one of the most addictive and deadly prescription drugs available. It is also one of the most difficult painkillers to withdraw from, as the lingering effects of methadone can remain for months causing joint aches and soreness as well as delayed sleeplessness.

 

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Benzodiazepine Drug Addiction

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Benzodiazepines (Benzos) are one of the most commonly abused and addictive prescription drugs. Benzodiazepines are a class of central nervous system depressant drugs commonly prescribed for short-term treatment of anxiety or insomnia. Proprietary names for drugs in this group include Valium, Xanax, Librium, and Halcion.According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), nearly 1.3 million emergency department (ED) visits in 2004 were associated with drug misuse/abuse. Nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals was involved in nearly 500,000 of these ED visits.

Benzodiazepines were present in more than 100,000 emergency department visits associated with nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals. Benzodiazepines include alprazolam and clonazepam.

From 1995 to 2002, drug abuse related emergency department visits involving benzodiazepines increased 41%.

Nearly half of the drug abuse related emergency department visits involving benzodiazepines were the result of suicide attempts.

Suicide related visits involving benzodiazepines have been stable since 1995, but visits attributed to drug dependence and drug taking for psychic effects have been increasing.

Of the 23,000 admissions in SAMHSA's Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) that involved benzodiazepines, only 19 percent were for primary benzodiazepine use; 81 percent were reported as secondary to the use of alcohol or another drug.

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