CDC goes to West Virginia to investigate rising number of prescription drug overdoses

Appalachia's abuse of prescription medicine has been called an epidemic. Readers, viewers and listeners may have thought that terminology gave the word a different meaning, but the folks who specialize in studying and controlling epidemics are tackling this one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently stepped in to help West Virginia researchers investigate why the state's rate of drug overdoses leads the nation and find ways of addressing the epidemic, reports Scott Finn of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Drug overdose has become the leading cause of death for young adults in the state. In 2006, 332 West Virginians died from accidental drug overdoses, and the "average victim was a man in his 30s, living in southern West Virginia," Finn reports. "More than half the victims had a history of chronic pain, mental illness or substance abuse." The study also found that "doctor shopping," going to multiple doctors for multiple prescriptions, played a major role. "The average victim had been to three doctors and three pharmacies in the last year," Finn explains. "Some went to a lot more," such as a few who had gone to 22 different providers in one year.

Prescription drugs were the leading cause of these overdoses; more than 90 percent of victims died from prescription drugs, with methadone contributing to a third of those deaths. "Approximately a third of the drugs that killed individuals were valid prescriptions, were validly prescribed products, which means that most of the folks that are dying from prescription drug overdose are obtaining those drugs through non-sanctioned means," Dr. Aron Hall, CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service officer for West Virginia, told Finn. (To listen to the report, go here.)

A February 2007 report by the CDC prompted the study, reports Tara Tuckwiller of The Charleston Gazette. That report "showed unintentional poisoning deaths climbed 550 percent in West Virginia between 1999 and 2004, far more than in any other state," she writes. (Read more)