Every day 46 Americans die from using prescription painkillers. The number hospitalized for pain overdoses has increased fivefold in recent years for the 45 to 85 population, soaring sevenfold for those 55-64.
These statistics do not reveal the true toll this epidemic is taking on older Americans because when an older person with multiple medical problems dies, death is often attributed to natural causes when the real cause is an opioid overdose.
It was in the late 1990s that the American Pain Society and the American Academy of Pain Medicine encouraged doctors to be more aggressive in relieving chronic pain; however, physicians today have become more cautious, recognizing that those taking an opioid drug for three to six months is highly likely to become addicted.