The following is from an editorial in The New York Times:
Every month, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention turns its spotlight on a health problem that merits attention. This month the CDC has focused on a problem that is rapidly getting worse: the rise of prescription painkiller overdoses, especially among women.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, said that women are dying from prescription painkillers at "rates that we have never seen before." He called it "a sleeper problem," underrecognized by doctors and patients.
Men are still more likely to die from prescription painkillers than women, but the gap is closing. Fatal overdoses more than quintupled among women and more than tripled among men from 1999 to 2010, the most recent year for which there is final data. In 2010, more than 6,600 women died from a painkiller overdose, a big leap from about 1,300 in 1999, though fewer than the 10,000 deaths among men.
There are many theories on why overdoses are soaring. Studies show that women are more likely to suffer from chronic pain than men, more likely to be prescribed higher doses and to remain on painkillers for longer times, and more likely to seek multiple prescriptions. Women also have a smaller body mass, so the gap between a therapeutic and fatal dose is narrower.
As far as CDC experts can tell, there has been no significant increase in the kind of severe pain that might require prescription painkillers. Rather, the pills are increasingly used to treat moderate pain that might well be eased by other means, like physical therapy. It is imperative, as the CDC urges, for doctors to prescribe more judiciously and to educate their patients on the risks of painkillers. It also behooves states to improve their tracking systems to identify doctors and patients who are overusing prescription drugs.