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Prescription Drug Addiction Statistics- Drug Abuse Hits Home
By
Judy Wellsworth, www.ezinearticles.com
May 28, 2007
The big drug addiction problem facing America, according to drug addiction statistics, lies not in the crack houses and shooting galleries of the inner cities, but in the doctor’s offices to which millions of Americans go in search of relief for their physical and emotional pain.
Drug Abuse Among The Elderly
As the Baby Boomer generation enters its retirement years, there are now more Americans over the age of sixty than ever before. Whether or not that is a factor, more prescriptions are being written, with less thorough understanding of the patient’s physical condition, than ever, and under those circumstances, it is not surprising that prescription drug abuse, according to the most recent prescription drug addiction statistics, is on the rise.
The US Department of Health and Human Services, in its latest publication of prescription drug addiction statistics, has both pinpointed those over sixty as the group among whom prescription drug abuse is the highest. According to their prescription drug addiction statistics, more than 17% of them are guilty of abuse; a very large number of those are oblivious to the fact that they are drug abusers.
What this may point to is an overwhelmed medical system, which limits doctors in the amount of time they can spend with each patient, and medical insurance companies who find it cheaper to pay for prescription pain medication than to pay for the therapies or surgeries which would eliminate the sources of the pain. Prescription drug addiction statistics revealing drug abuse among the elderly does not speak well for the US health system.
Drug Abuse Among The Young
But prescription drug addiction statistics reveal another at-risk age group; the young, as well as the elderly, are becoming more and more dependent on prescription medicines. Those between the ages of twelve and twenty-five are now five times more likely to engage in prescription drug abuse than they were just twenty-five years ago. And the trend is growing faster among girls and young women than among boys and young men.
Another alarming truth underlying these prescription drug addiction statistics is that, when those who cannot get their prescriptions refilled need their fixes, they can turn to friends who have the same prescriptions, or they can buy the pills from strangers. Even worse, they can do it without their doctor’s knowledge.
The illegal sales of prescription drugs have soared in recent years. And as long as prescription drugs are the treatment of choice for so many conditions, prescription drug addiction statistics give no reason to think that trend will reverse.
You can also find more info on Drug Addiction Support and Drug Addiction Symptoms. Drugtreatmentinfo.org is a comprehensive resource to known more about drug addiction.
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