Unintentional Drug Poisoning Deaths: A National Epidemic

I happened to be looking up causes of death for different age groups at the CDC and was surprised to see poisoning as a leading cause of death in my age group. Google led me to this article.

Reading past the first page requires a free account (Hint: http://www.bugmenot.com/view/medscape.com).

Excerpts:

* "As a leading cause of injury and death [in the US)], drug poisoning has passed other leading causes and is now second only to motor vehicle crash deaths"

* "We're talking about maybe 35,000 suicide deaths a year in the United States, and as I mentioned, in 2007, over 27,500 unintentional drug poisoning deaths, so unintentional overdoses are still behind suicides for the country as a whole."

* "When you look at percentages, it's the 45- to 54-year-olds who are in the greatest risk, followed by the 35- to 44-year-old range. Not very far behind would be the 25- to 34-year-olds; the teenagers, the 15- to 24-year-olds; followed by the 55- to 64-year-olds. Men die at higher rates than women of unintentional drug poisoning, but the rate of death for women is increasing even faster than that for men."

* "A high percentage of people who died from unintentional overdoses were given a prescription for hydrocodone, methadone, oxycodone, or other related pain compounds"