Study: More women overdosing on painkillers
Time was, parents lived in fear of their kids becoming drug addicts.
That’s still the case, but kids these days should be just as worried about their mother becoming one.
That’s one of the findings from a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study showing that prescription opiate overdose deaths are rising at astounding rates among middle-aged women. Annual deaths among women increased 400 percent from 1999 to 2010 among women to 15,300, compared to a 250 percent jump among men, the study found.
Of those, women ages 45 to 54 had the greatest percentage increase — underscoring a shifting perception about who uses drugs and who is likely to become addled with a crippling, agonizing and emotionally draining addiction.
If you believe pop culture, it’s easy to think drug abuse is an all-boys club of teens, low-lives, greedy executives and musicians. But a growing body of science tells a different story. As abuse of prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin surpasses those of cocaine or meth, it’s mothers, the lady in line at the supermarket and nurses who are the biggest victims.
It’s everyday America, in other words, and the causes are both frightening and complex.
“It’s a serious health problem and it’s getting worse rapidly,” said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, told The Associated Press.
The CDC’s Linda Degutis speculates that women may be more prone to overdoses because they have more chronic pain, take painkillers in higher doses and use them longer than men. That’s partly because middle-aged women are more prone to injury, but also because doctors are too likely to prescribe drugs such as OxyContin that patients don’t need, experts say.
The report calls for a “mindset change” by doctors who are predisposed to think of drug abuse as a problem for men. Doctors need to be wise that, these days, women are just as likely to become addicts, think twice before prescribing them OxyContin and consider alternative treatments.
“All too often, the risks are way higher than the benefits,” Frieden said.
It’s time to end the risk
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