Every single day, 46 people in the United States die from overdoses of prescription pain killers, and not only is that an alarming number, a new report by the National Institutes of Health says there’s such an overuse in this country of prescription painkillers that the NIH is calling it a “silent epidemic.”
“The overriding question is whether we, as a nation, are currently approaching chronic pain in the best possible manner that maximizes effectiveness and minimizes harm,” the report states. “Evidence is insufficient for every clinical decision that a provider needs to make about the use of opioids for chronic pain.”
And to make matters worse, many people are prescribed a dangerous cocktail of drugs that ultimately lands them in the hospital – more than 100,000 hospitalizations in recent years — or leads to their death. The NIH study found that more people between 25 and 64 die from drug overdoses than car accidents, and that 71% of these overdoses were from prescription drugs.
“In the case of pain management, which often requires substantial face-to-face time, quicker alternatives have become the default option,” the study explains.
Oxycodone, codeine and dilaudid are among the drugs most frequently abused.
The NIH says treatment with opiate drugs can be effective, particularly on a short-term basis, but recommends that health professionals do more frequent checkups on patients taking those drugs to monitor for dependency and abuse and that the treatment become more “multi-disciplinary,” looking at diet and exercise as part of long-term care and treatment.
