From Deseret News archives:

Prescription pain medication in Utah

Published: Thursday, May 1, 2008 12:13 p.m. MDT
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More Utahns in recent years have died of unintentional prescription pain medication overdoses than in car crashes, according to the Utah Department of Health.

Among UDOH's other facts:

• Since 2000, the number of deaths associated with prescribed opioid pain medicines has increased 400 percent.

• Between 1999 and 2004, 47 percent of those deaths were of people who had an active prescription for the drug determined to have killed them. And 75 percent had a valid prescription for that drug within the last year.

• Only 15 percent had no record of a prescription being filled for the opioid found in their system at the time of death.

• In 2006, unintentional overdose due to prescribed opioids was the fourth-leading cause of death for Utahns ages 25-54.

Recent comments

You are right. Many of those are suicides - antidepressant-induced...

Dr. Ann Blake-Tracy | May 11, 2008 at 10:13 p.m.

I have never done well with prescription drugs. I have always had...

One persons choice | May 1, 2008 at 7:42 p.m.

Sadly, I don't believe that all those accidental overdoses were...

John B | May 1, 2008 at 5:48 p.m.

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