Treatment Admissions Involving Narcotic Painkillers: 2002 Update

Treatment Admissions Involving Narcotic Painkillers: 2002 Update
In Brief

• Between 1992 and 2002, treatment admission rates for abuse of narcotic painkillers more than doubled
• The proportion of new users of narcotic painkillers (those entering treatment within 3 years of beginning use) increased from 26 percent in 1997 to 39 percent in 2002
  Between 1997 and 2002, the number of treatment admissions involving narcotic painkillers increased for all ages, especially among people aged 20 to 30
• Admissions to treatment involving the abuse of narcotic painkillers made up a small proportion-about 4 percent-of the 1.9 million admissions reported to the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) in 2002. However, these treatment admissions have increased in publicly funded substance abuse treatment facilities across the nation during the last few years.
• In 2002, there were about 84,000 admissions to treatment where the primary, secondary, or tertiary substance of abuse was a narcotic painkiller. In about half of these admissions, narcotic painkillers represented the primary substance of abuse.2 In the other half of these 84,000 admissions, abuse of narcotic painkillers was secondary to abuse of another substance, generally alcohol or heroin. The number of treatment admissions in which narcotic painkillers were involved was relatively stable between 1992 and 1997, but increased between 1997 and 2002 (Figure 1). In 1992, the treatment admission rate for narcotic painkiller abuse in the United States was 14 admissions per 100,000 persons aged 12 or older.3 By 2002, it had increased to 35 admissions per 100,000, more than doubling the rate since 1992.

http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k4/painTX/painTX.htm