Prescription drug OD deaths up sharply among women
A 400 percent increase since 1999
The number of prescription painkiller overdose deaths increased fivefold among women between 1999 and 2010, according to a Vital Signs report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While men are more likely to die of a prescription painkiller overdose, since 1999 the percentage increase in deaths was greater among women (400 percent in women compared to 265 percent in men). Prescription painkiller overdoses killed nearly 48,000 women 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,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Stopping this epidemic in women – and men – is everyone’s business. Doctors need to be cautious about prescribing and patients about using these drugs.”