EVERETT — For the fourth year in a row, unintentional poisonings — most of them involving prescription drugs — have outpaced motor vehicle accidents as the main cause of unintentional injury death in Snohomish County, according to a new report.
According to the report from the Snohomish Health District, 98 people in the county died from unintentional poisonings in 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available.
Drug overdoses caused 97 percent of such deaths between 2005 and 2007, according to the report. Nearly 80 percent of these involved some type of painkiller, and more than 60 percent involved a prescription opioid such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone or morphine.
In many cases, more than one type of drug is involved, sometimes an over-the-counter drug and one obtained through a prescription, district officials said.
“Taking these drugs in high doses or in combination with other drugs that also cause respiratory depression, such as antidepressants, increases the risk of death,” said Dr. Gary Goldbaum, director of the health district.
In cases of accidental death, an average of 3.3 drugs are present in the person’s system, said Jane Ballard, health statistics and assessment manager for the district.
It’s important, she said, for people to work with their doctors regarding their medication — “that they tell their doctors what they’re taking and the doctors ask their patients what they’re taking.”
The trend is similar statewide, according to Jennifer Sabel, an epidemiologist for the state Department of Health.
In 1995, 23 accidental deaths statewide were attributed to prescription opioids, Sabel said.
In 2007, it was 447.
Adults entering state-funded substance abuse treatment programs for prescription opioids between 2003 and 2008 increased fourfold, Sabel said.
“It’s the primary drug that they’re having problems with,” she said of the programs.
Prescription opioids became much more readily available about 10 years ago as laws governing their distribution were relaxed in many states, including Washington, Sabel said.
“Basically it liberalized the use of these medications for physicians,” she said.
The Snohomish Health District found that commercial disbursements of commonly abused prescription drugs, including opioids, increased 109 percent from 2000 through 2004.
Before the late ’90s, use of prescription opioids was limited to people with terminal cancer and end-of-life care, Sabel said.
Then, “there was a big shift, there was a lot of advocacy, people saying, ‘There’s a lot of people not being treated and in pain.’ ”
Many primary care physicians didn’t have experience or training with the drugs, she said. That’s why the health department is supporting education initiatives by several organizations, including training for health-care providers, Sabel said.
People using the drugs also need to make sure they understand and read the instructions from their pharmacists, Goldbaum said.
Still, nonmedical use of prescription painkillers — obtaining them illegally and using them for the good feeling they provide rather than to ease pain — has increased as well, according to the health district report.
According to the report, adults ages 35 to 54 were at highest risk of prescription opioid deaths. Men were also at a slightly higher risk than women.
“We also need to increase local awareness about this problem,” Goldbaum said. “Identifying the causes of death is an essential first step for improving our public’s health.”
Key numbers in the report
Statistics from a report by the Snohomish Health District on accidental poisonings:
78 percent who died had more than one opioid, prescription or over-the-counter, present in their system.
Accidental deaths in which at least one prescription opioid was involved increased from 31 percent in 1999 to 60 percent in 2007.
27 percent of the deaths involved illegal drugs. No clear trend regarding these drugs has emerged since 1999, according to a health district official.
Three percent of the poisonings involved vapors, gases or alcohol.
Read the report at www.snohd.org/snoHealthStats.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
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