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Are prescription drug overdoses on the rise? According to a report released by Reuters Health on April 6, the number of annual U.S. hospital admissions due to poisoning by prescription opioids, sedatives and tranquilizers rose from about 43,000 to 71,000 between 1999 and 2006, respectively. This 65 percent increase is nearly double the amount observed in admissions due to the poisoning by other drugs and medications.

According to Dr. Jeffrey Coben of West Virginia University School of Medicine, most Americans see the headlines related to stars such as Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, and Anna Nicole Smith and think that such tragedies pertain only to Hollywood. Coben and his colleagues who performed the study, said this assumption was to the contrary. The reality is research across the country is seeing “very significant increases in serious overdoses associated with prescription drugs.”

The most predominant prescription drugs associated with these overdoses are opioids, such as morphine, methadone, Oxycontin and the active ingredient in Percocet. These powerful narcotic painkillers have been found to be habit-forming. Also, sedatives or tranquilizers such as Valium, Xanax, and Ativan are the reason for the increase in admissions.

When asked why there has been such a rise in poisoning by prescription drugs, Coben and his team noted that there wasn’t any single cause. But rather a number of variations such as the increase in availability of powerful prescription drugs, as well as the attitude toward the use, or abuse, of prescription drugs tends to be different than ones toward using other drugs. This is especially true among young people, who say that prescription drugs are easy to obtain and they see them as less addictive and less dangerous than street drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

However, the rate of accidental, or unintentional, poising by opioids, sedatives and tranquilizers nearly doubled during the seven year study period. With unintentional poisoning now the second-leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States.

The study, which was published in the April 2010 issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, also found that urban, middle-aged women seem especially vulnerable to prescription drug overdoses. And that hospitalizations for methadone poisoning increased more than any other drug during the seven-year period.

A multitude of news stories broke this week that draw further attention to the increasing threat of prescription drugs epidemic. Abuse of prescription drugs, like substance abuse in general, shows no discrimination in the target demographic.

First, on the heels of last week’s blog about teen star, Corey Haim, investigators into his death found that he was using nearly twenty different doctors for prescription drugs. In his apartment they found prescription drugs such as Valium, Vicodin, Soma, and Haloperidol. He also had prescriptions written for OxyContin. Investigators now believe him to be linked to a prescription drug ring in California.

A recent study involving senior citizens (65 years or older) found that most of them, nearly 67%, take five or more types of prescription drugs and 21% take ten or more types of prescription drugs. This puts them at risk not only for abuse of certain prescription drugs, but also increases their risk of adverse effects and fatal interactions between the various drugs. This is awareness is crucial during a time when many U.S. cities are seeing a 70-80% increase (since 2000) in accidental overdoses due to prescription drugs.

This week at a pharmaceutical warehouse in Connecticut, police witnessed the most audacious example of a growing phenomenon when thieves stole $75 million worth of prescription drugs for resale on the black market.

CNN reported this week that 1 in 5 teens in grades 9 – 12 admitted abuse of prescription medication, especially xanax.

A recent article in Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News reported that physicians who are coping with prescription painkiller abuse are often flying under the radar. “[Misuse and abuse of prescription medications] is increasing, actually rather dramatically, in the population as a whole,” said Marv Seppala, MD, himself a recovering addict who was among the first physicians in the country to be certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine. “Abuse of prescribed medications, specifically opioids, is now second to marijuana in terms of abuse,” he said. “There is also a remarkable increase in cases involving health care professionals.”

And lastly, some of the more alarming news regarding abuse of prescription drugs was released this week by the Pentagon about the Army. As reported by USA Today, the military is trying to curb the amount of prescription drugs given to the troops when a study found that military doctors wrote almost 3.8 million prescriptions for pain relief for troops last year. This was more than four times the 866,773 doses given in 2001. Military officials and analysts see the increase in use of pain medication as a result of the continuing toll on ground troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the results released this year, one in four soldiers admitted abusing prescription drugs, mostly pain medication, in the 12 months prior to the Pentagon survey in 2008.