Frequency of Prescription Pain Reliever Nonmedical Use: 2002-2003 and 2009-2010

The public health consequences associated with the nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone have dramatically increased over the last decade.¹ In 2009, 15 597 people died of overdoses involving these drugs—a 109% increase since 2002.² Prior studies examining prescription pain reliever overdose deaths found that nonmedical use was common among decedents before death.^3- 4 National estimates of past-year nonmedical use of these drugs, however, have remained stable since 2002.^5- 6 These estimates include the spectrum of nonmedical users from those who used pain relievers once or twice to those who were more frequent or chronic nonmedical users. This Research Letter attempts to determine if the subset of chronic nonmedical users of pain relievers—those using 200 days or more in the past year—has increased since 2002, in parallel with fatal overdoses of these drugs. Understanding trends in the frequency of nonmedical use can help identify populations at greatest risk for overdoses.