Prescription Drug Rehab Still a Growing Need
The number of people seeking drug rehab for abuse of prescription painkillers continues to escalate. In fact, there was a 9 percent increase between 2004 and 2005, to 64,120 rehab admissions. These statistics were provided by the annual Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, and includes nearly 2 million drug rehab admissions to facilities that report their characteristics.
Drugs abused by those seeking rehabilitation in this category included codeine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, meperidine, morphine, opium, oxycodone, pentazocine, propoxyphene, tramadol, and other drugs with morphine-life effects. Popular brand names in these categories include Oxycontin, Vicodin, Lortab and Percocet, to name a few.
Officials had largely underestimated the destruction caused by these drugs, but recent observances have found that between 1995 and 2005 there has been an increase of over 300 percent in prescription drug rehab admissions regarding these painkillers.
drug rehab, painkillers, prescription painkillers
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