Fatal overdoses of Rx painkillers up in WA
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Statewide deaths linked to prescription drugs such as hydrocodone and methadone increased by more than 800 percent in a ten-year period, according to new research.
Painkillers resulted in 411 deaths in Washington in 2004, an 813 percent increase over the 45 deaths reported in 1995, state health researchers found. Spokane, with 48 deaths in 2004, had the highest death rate per population of any county in the state.
Health officials say the data speaks to a nationwide problem.
A national study drafted last year for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed an increase of more than 91 percent in narcotic painkiller poisonings listed on death certificates between 1999 and 2002.
Unintended drug poisonings now account for almost as many deaths in Washington as car crashes - about 650 a year - primarily because of the spike in prescription-related fatalities, said Jennifer Sabel, an epidemiologist with the state Health Department.
"Prescription drug overdose deaths have been climbing through the roof," said Sabel. "Even doctors don't really realize the magnitude of the deaths."
Detailed research has not been done in Idaho, but health officials there said accidental deaths due to drug poisoning rose from 32 to 62 between 2000 and 2004, a 94 percent increase.
Last year, an Idaho woman brought to the Kootenai County coroner was found to have died after failing to remove used patches of time-released Fentanyl before applying the new ones.
"She came in with eight or nine patches plastered on her body," said Dr. Robert West. "It caused a narcotic cessation of breathing."
In Washington, state health officials are finding that legal opiates are killing more people than illicit substances, such as heroin.
"I've had to manually review all these death certificates and I've just seen it increase," said Ann Lima, a state epidemiologist trained to study causes of death. "It's incredible how much it's gone up."
Lima and a team of researchers examined more than 3,500 state death certificates from 1995 to 2004 that listed opiates as a cause.
They found that:
-Deaths linked to prescription drugs, illegal drugs or others that were unspecified more than doubled from 260 to 555 a year.
-Prescribed opiates resulted in deaths increasing from 23 to 267.
-Deaths due to heroin and other illicit opiates dropped 33 percent, from 215 in 1995 to 144 in 2004.
"In Spokane County, it has become much less usual to list heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine as the cause of death, and more common to find a prescription medication," Spokane County Medical Examiner Sally Aiken said.
The data has prompted some to start a grass-roots advocacy group aimed at stopping teenagers from using prescription drugs.
Public awareness needs to catch up with reality, said Mark Selle, a Chewelah-area school district superintendent who helped form the group Prescriptions for Life.
"I'm familiar with people close to me who have hydrocodone, OxyContin and Percocet," said Selle, citing common painkillers. "They think, 'I can't sleep, I'll just pop one of those."'
Painkillers resulted in 411 deaths in Washington in 2004, an 813 percent increase over the 45 deaths reported in 1995, state health researchers found. Spokane, with 48 deaths in 2004, had the highest death rate per population of any county in the state.
Health officials say the data speaks to a nationwide problem.
A national study drafted last year for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed an increase of more than 91 percent in narcotic painkiller poisonings listed on death certificates between 1999 and 2002.
Unintended drug poisonings now account for almost as many deaths in Washington as car crashes - about 650 a year - primarily because of the spike in prescription-related fatalities, said Jennifer Sabel, an epidemiologist with the state Health Department.
"Prescription drug overdose deaths have been climbing through the roof," said Sabel. "Even doctors don't really realize the magnitude of the deaths."
Detailed research has not been done in Idaho, but health officials there said accidental deaths due to drug poisoning rose from 32 to 62 between 2000 and 2004, a 94 percent increase.
Last year, an Idaho woman brought to the Kootenai County coroner was found to have died after failing to remove used patches of time-released Fentanyl before applying the new ones.
"She came in with eight or nine patches plastered on her body," said Dr. Robert West. "It caused a narcotic cessation of breathing."
In Washington, state health officials are finding that legal opiates are killing more people than illicit substances, such as heroin.
"I've had to manually review all these death certificates and I've just seen it increase," said Ann Lima, a state epidemiologist trained to study causes of death. "It's incredible how much it's gone up."
Lima and a team of researchers examined more than 3,500 state death certificates from 1995 to 2004 that listed opiates as a cause.
They found that:
-Deaths linked to prescription drugs, illegal drugs or others that were unspecified more than doubled from 260 to 555 a year.
-Prescribed opiates resulted in deaths increasing from 23 to 267.
-Deaths due to heroin and other illicit opiates dropped 33 percent, from 215 in 1995 to 144 in 2004.
"In Spokane County, it has become much less usual to list heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine as the cause of death, and more common to find a prescription medication," Spokane County Medical Examiner Sally Aiken said.
The data has prompted some to start a grass-roots advocacy group aimed at stopping teenagers from using prescription drugs.
Public awareness needs to catch up with reality, said Mark Selle, a Chewelah-area school district superintendent who helped form the group Prescriptions for Life.
"I'm familiar with people close to me who have hydrocodone, OxyContin and Percocet," said Selle, citing common painkillers. "They think, 'I can't sleep, I'll just pop one of those."'