Use of painkillers among Americans at all-time high

22 August, 2007:

Americans are now using painkillers more than ever before.

The volume of five major painkillers sold and distributed in the United States by hospitals, retail pharmacies, doctors, and teaching centres between 1997 and 2007 has risen by 90%.

This is the finding of a recent analysis conducted by Associated Press (AP) based on figures from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

In the most recent year of complete data, the DEA figures show that Americans bought over 200,000 pounds of codeine, hydrocodone, meperidine, morphine, and oxycodone. That is equivalent to 300 milligrams of painkillers for each member of the population.

Most of the increase was in the sales of pills that contain oxycodone, the active ingredient in the painkiller OxyContin. Sales of this compound rose to nearly 600% in the 8 years between 1997 and 2005.

Oxycodone was once known as ‘hillbilly heroin’ because of its reputation for being bought and sold, mostly illegally in Appalachia. Nowadays, however, it has gained a strong foothold in major cities in states such as Ohio and Florida.

The other painkiller on the rise, and mostly in rural parts of the United States, is hydrocodone, the active ingredient of Vicodin. However, cities are also seeing sharp rises in use of all painkillers – meaning that the problem covers the whole of America.

The analysts of Associated Press suggest the following reasons for the rise in the use of painkillers among Americans:

The proportion of older people in the population is rising.
A huge increase in drug marketing, which has gone up from $11 billion spent in 1997 to $30 billion in 2005. Changes in the way pain is managed, where painkillers are now seen as an essential part of the healing process.

However, there may also be other reasons, such as the fact more and more people are surviving cancer and other life-threatening diseases, but have increased needs of pain management.

The AP report highlights the fact that some high-profile arrests and prosecutions have made many pain management doctors reluctant to prescribe pain medication, though they will offer support and guidance.

One area where painkiller sales had soared was Myrtle Beach, a 60-mile strip of Atlantic beach inhabited by 350,000 people and visited by 14 million tourists every year. A joint federal and state investigation resulted in a number of arrests and prosecutions, including one doctor who was sentenced to 15 years and another who was threatened with 100 years if she did not cooperate.

Since these and other prosecutions, many pain management doctors have been nervous about prescribing painkillers, and people with legitimate needs are forced to travel miles, sometimes to another state, to get their prescriptions filled.

Another source of painkillers is the black market, fueled by stolen drugs. The AP report mentions a government report issued in 2004 which said that about 3 million doses of the painkillers codeine, hydrocodone, and oxycodone were stolen every year from American pharmacies, drug manufacturers and distributors.