Malpractice News: Spike in Overdose Deaths from Prescription Drugs, Street Drugs and Alcohol

Malpractice News: A research study conducted at the University of California at San Diego shows the number of Americans who died from an overdose involving combinations of prescription medications, alcohol and street drugs rose by more than 3,000 percent during the past 20 years. The study findings were published in the July 2008 Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study included a review of over 50 million U.S. death certificates issued between 1983 and 2004. The overall results of the study revealed that 200,000 deaths (a 360 percent increase) were attributable to accidental overdoses of prescription medications.

In 1983, 92 people died at home due to a combination of prescription medications, street drugs and/or alcohol. By 2004, that number had increased by nearly 3,200 percent, with 3,792 recorded deaths attributable to drug and alcohol overdoses.

The researchers divided the fatal overdoses into four categories: deaths at home involving drugs and alcohol; home deaths involving only prescription drugs; deaths occurring away from the individual’s home involving drugs and alcohol; and those that died away from home due to a medication overdose.

The researchers noted a 564 percent increase in deaths at home due to prescription drug overdoses and a 555 percent increase in deaths away from home involving a combination of prescription drugs, street drugs and/or alcohol. There was only a five percent increase in the number of deaths away from home involving only prescription drugs.

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