Articles Index

Pain-Killer Abuse Increasing Among Older Adults
As older Americans turn to pain pills to combat the aches and pains of aging, more are becoming addicted to the opiate-based drugs, causing the number of seniors seeking treatment for addiction to almost double.

Drug Overdose Deaths Double in Five Years
Unintentional fatal drug overdoses almost doubled from 1999 to 2004 and became the second leading cause of accidental death in the United States in 2004, behind only automobile crashes, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

FDA Issues Health Advisory for Methadone
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a health advisory concerning the prescribing of methadone for pain control, after receiving reports of death and life-threatening side effects in patients new to using the drug.

Opioid Withdrawal, Cocaine Use Damages Heart
Abrupt withdrawal from high-dose painkillers such as OxyContin or the use of cocaine can both increase risk of a cardiac event known as 'broken heart syndrome,' according to two studies published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Opiate Drug Use Creates Vicious Stress Cycle
Research shows that opiate drugs, such as morphine and heroin, leaves users more vulnerable to stress, which can create a vicious cycle with stress triggering more drug use.

Fentanyl Pain Patch Abuse Can Be Deadly
Drug abusers misusing prescription fentanyl pain patches, which are designed to slowly release the painkiller, to get a quick high are running the risk of dying from an overdose of the drug, which is 100 times more potent than morphine.

Pain Medication Addiction More Risky for Younger Patients
Older patients can take opiod-based pain medications to ease severe, chronic pain with little risk of seeking larger doses, but research shows that younger patients are more likely to want to rapidly increase their medication dose.

Abuse of Anti-Anxiety Drugs Increases
The number of drug-abuse related visits to hospital emergency rooms involving benzodiazepine medications exceeded 100,000 in 2002, a 41 percent increase since 1995.

Pain-Killer Addiction Hits Rural Areas
Rural areas outpaced urban areas in substance abuse treatment rates for abuse of narcotic painkillers in 2002.

Oxycodone, Hydrocodone Abuse on the Increase
Forty percent of the 119,000 mentions of narcotic pain medications in emergency rooms involved either oxycodone or hydrocodone in 2002, according to a new report released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

A Prescription for Teen Danger
A growing number of teenagers are raiding their parents' pill bottles or buying prescription drugs illegally. Medicines that can help patients can also be misused to produce a high feeling. And they can hook teens into addiction just as easily as other illicit drugs.

Many Take More Pain Relievers Than Recommended
Despite increasing evidence of the serious side effects associated with indiscriminate use of over-the-counter analgesics, U.S. adults continue to use the medications incorrectly, putting themselves at risk for life-threatening side effects.