More women are dying from prescription painkiller overdose than ever before in what has been called an epidemic by the CDC.
Painkiller-related deaths in women have increased by 400 percent since 1999, compared with a 265 percent increase for men. Hospital visits related to painkiller abuse is even more frequent, for every woman who dies from the substances about 30 go to the emergency room, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Eighteen women die every day from prescription painkillers; there were at least 6,600 fatalities in 2010 alone.
"These are troubling numbers," CDC director Dr.Thomas R. Frieden told the Daily News. "It's one of the very few things we monitor that's getting worse and getting worse quickly."
Men are still more likely to die from a prescription overdose than women, but their numbers have remained more stagnant over the years. 10,000 men died painkiller-related deaths in 2010, the press release stated.
The CDC said the increase is directly related to doctor's prescribing more of these drugs than they have in the past. They suggest improving the way the drugs are prescribed by: recognizing the problem, using guidelines for responsible prescribing, and use prescription drug monitoring programs to weed out patients who are abusing the substances.
Women between the ages of 45 to 54 have the highest risk of dying from prescription painkiller abuse or overdose. Caucasian, American Indian, and Alaska Native women are also at a higher risk of suffering a drug-related fatality. The drugs are used in one out of every female suicides in the U.S.
Women are more likely to suffer from "abdominal pain, migraine and musculoskeletal pain ," which are commonly treated with painkillers, the Daily News said.
Though women usually weigh less than men, they are more likely to be prescribed higher doses of the medication, and experts aren't sure why.
"These are dangerous medications. They should be reserved for situations like severe cancer pain. In many other situations the risks far outweigh the benefits," Frieden said.
