New rules aim to stem prescription overdoses

You're more likely to die of a prescription drug overdose than an auto accident in Utah.

But new guidelines released Thursday by the Utah Department of Health are designed to help reduce those drug deaths.

Prescriptions written for opioid medications such as hydrocodone, oxycodone and methadone increased six-fold from 1997 to 2002 in the Beehive State, as doctors moved forward with a nationwide trend to better control and treat pain. Dr. Robert Rolfs, state epidemiologist, said there is evidence that both acute (short-term) pain, and chronic (long-term) pain had been under-treated before the turn of the century.

Aggressive marketing by pharmaceutical companies has also contributed to the point that "the norm in terms of how (such medications) are used has dramatically shifted," he said. As the rate of usage has risen, so have the number of local deaths tied to the medications.

The health department developed the new guidelines for doctors in conjunction with two multi-disciplinary physician groups, with the goal to reduce the number of unintentional overdoses in Utah by 15 percent.

"It's important for physicians and the public to be aware that these guidelines are recommendations, they are not requirements and they are not laws," said Dr. David Sundwall, executive director of the state health department. "However, it's also important to recognize prescription pain medication overdose deaths have reached epidemic proportions in Utah and health-care providers bear some responsibility in combating the problem."

Rolfs said part of the reason more Utahns are dying is "a fairly large increase in people using them non-medically, abusing them in one way or another." While the health department doesn't have hard numbers, he said anecdotal evidence suggests that about one-third of people taking the drugs are doing so as prescribed for a real medical problem; one third are probably abusing the drugs; and another third "is probably a mix of the two."

Many people who have same-day surgical procedures or even dental work get a prescription from their physician for one of the opioids, often for a much larger number of pills than they actually need for pain. "When you get 30 and you take two, how many does that leave in the medicine cabinet where a teenager or family friend finds them" and decides either to take them personally or to sell them on the street?