Posted by Neill Abayon
Every day, 42 women die from a drug overdose - and nearly half of those overdoses are from prescription painkillers.
In fact, according to newly released figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of women dying from prescription drug overdoses has increased by more than 400% since 1999 - nearly double the 265% increase of deaths in men.
"In 2010, more than 6,600 women died from prescription painkillers, four times as many died from cocaine and heroin combined," says CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden.
These numbers are proportional to the increasingly high use of prescription painkillers in the last decade, Frieden says, but "the overwhelming number of these deaths ... more than 70% were unintentional."
In fact, a woman was admitted to the emergency room for prescription drug overdose or misuse every three minutes, the CDC found. While women between the ages of 25-54 were the ones most likely to go to the ER, it was women between the ages of 45 and 54 who had the highest risk of dying from a prescription painkiller overdose.
The full article is here.
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