Prescription Painkiller Overdoses in the U.S.
Overdose deaths from prescription painkillers have skyrocketed in the past decade. Every year, nearly 15,000 people die from overdoses involving these drugs--more than those who die from heroin and cocaine combined.
Overdoses involving prescription painkillers--a class of drugs that includes hydrocodone, methadone, oxycodone, and oxymorphone--are a public health epidemic. These drugs are widely misused and abused. One in 20 people in the United States, ages 12 and older, used prescription painkillers nonmedically (without a prescription or just for the "high" they cause) in 2010. A recent CDC analysis discusses this growing epidemic and suggested measures for prevention.
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