Key Prescription Drug Addiction Statistics

Prescription drug addiction is becoming a major problem in
America Prescription drugs are being prescribed for a wider
variety of reasons and quite frequently, greatly increasing the
chances that they will be misused There are several disturbing
prescription drug addiction statistics that are worth
mentioning
One sad prescription drug addiction statistic reported by the
US Department of Health and human services is that people 60
years old and up are the age group most likely to be addicted to
prescription drugs Furthermore, as of 2000, over 17% of people
over age 60 abuse prescription drugs, many of them doing so
unwittingly
Another disturbing prescription drug statistic is that
prescription drug abuse is rising fastest among people 12 to 25
Since the mid 1980′s, prescription drug abuse has increased
fivefold One reason for this is that many young people believe
that prescription drugs are safe alternatives to illegal drugs
Many of these people don’t know that prescription drugs are
addictive and can lead to serious health problems if misused It
is reported that females are more likely to abuse and become
addicted to prescription drugs than males are in this age group
While most people who are addicted to prescription drugs abuse
opioids like OxyContin and Vicodin, the number of young people
who abused CNS (central nervous system) depressants rose by 50%
in just one year, between 1999 and 2000
The illegal sale of prescription drugs has increased enormously
in recent years The vast increase in the availability of
prescription drugs increases the numbers of addicts, because
more people have access to the drugs Modern computer technology
makes it very difficult for the authorities to track down
operators of websites that sell prescription drugs over the
Internet without requiring a prescription
These prescription drug addiction statistics are disheartening,
but the more people are aware of the problems caused by
prescription drug addiction, the more likely they are to avoid
misusing them or seek help if they already have a problem

Tags | addiction, alternatives, department, depressants, drug, health, human, illegal, nervous, oxycontin, problems, result, services, technology, vicodin