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Abuse of Oxycodone and Hydrocodone Grew 2002-2004/Incidence of Misuse of Other Prescription Drugs Remained Stable

The misuse of popular painkillers in the oxycodone and hydrocodone categories went up significantly, according to the latest figures released in October 2006 by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Servics Administration (SAMHSA).

For people age 12 and older, the incidence of misuse of these drugs at least once during a person's lifetime went from 5.9% in 2002 to 7.4% in 2004 for hydrocodone and from 4.3 to 5.0% for oxycodone. Additionally, the annual average number of those who reported initial misuse of a prescription pain reliever was 2.4 million, exceeding first-time use of marijuana (reported by 2.1 million people).

The report is available online as part of the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health. The table of contents is available at oas.samhsa.gov/prescription/toc.htm. Colorado, Kentucky, and Washington ranked among the states with the highest prevalence of non-medical prescription pain reliever use among persons aged 12 years or older. The District of Columbia, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota had the lowest prevalence of pain reliever misuse in the same age group.

Pattern differs from Street Drug Abuse

"Pain medicine physicians should be aware of what's going on in their region," says Moric, who presented his findings in a poster session at the 2006 American Society of Anesthesiologists meeting in Chicago in October.

"I think the 'take-away' message from this abstract is that PPM abuse can happen anywhere," he says. "To think of the problem as solely an urban issue is clearly inaccurate."

Moric notes that the rates for Illinois - including Chicago, the nation's third-largest city-are lower than those of all states bordering it except Iowa. He said the new data disprove the myth that prescription drug abuse is more prevalent in bigger cities. The rate isn't higher in states with large metropolitan areas such as New York, Illinois, Texas, and California. The profile in those states was different, Moric says. For example, despite its relatively low PPM abuse incidence, Illinois had a high incidence of heroin abuse.

To find out the patterns in your area, he suggests going to the local police department. Larger police districts are likely to have these data, Moric says, and the police chiefs of smaller ones probably know what's going on in their towns and surrounding rural areas.

Percentage of Oxycodone Abuse Increase Surpassed That of All Other Opioids Combined

In 2004, the data showed that the proportionate increase in controlled-release oxycodone emergency-department mentions from 1998 to 2002 surpassed that of all other opioids combined. The fastest growth in incidence of abuse has been for controlled-release forms, which are crushed or broken to circumvent the controlled-release mechanisms. Moric, Buvanendran, and their fellow researchers continue to follow data on prescription drug abuse, looking at what the patterns can reveal. The Rush researchers' report this year underlines the disparity between patterns of prescription drug abuse and those of street drugs.