By Staff Reports
(Hawaii)– From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that more and more women are dying from overdoses of prescription drugs. Researcher Karin Mack:
“Mothers, wives, sisters and daughters are dying from these overdoses at rates never seen before. Prescription painkiller overdose deaths increased fivefold among women between 1999 and 2010.”
Mack says more than 6,600 women died in 2010 from prescription painkiller overdose. Men are still more likely to die from overdoses but women are catching up fast.
Previous research shows that women are more likely than men to have chronic pain, to get painkillers at higher doses, and to use them for longer periods.
The study is in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Learn more at healthfinder.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.