Dying by drugs
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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Researchers are seeing a troubling trend in deaths involving opioid analgesics - drugs like methadone, oxycodone, and fentanyl. At the National Center for Health Statistics in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Margaret Warner looked over national mortality data:
[Margaret Warner speaks] "The number of poisoning deaths from opioid analgesics nearly tripled in the period from 1999 to 2006. And this is quite a large increase - from about 4,000 deaths to about 13,800 deaths."
Warner's data don't explain why more people are dying - for instance, whether there was an increase in recreational use of these powerful prescription drugs. But the study found that in at least half the deaths, more than one drug was involved.
The report is in an NCHS Data Brief.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.