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Fitzgerald Health Education Associates, Inc., April 2015 fhea.com
relaxants. The study found that approximately 8% of
patients were taking all three types of drugs during
the same period. This combination, a mixture of al-
prazolam, hydrocodone, and carisoprodol, known as
the "Houston Cocktail," gives a heroin-like high. Of
patients taking drug mixtures, two-thirds were get-
ting prescriptions from two or more practitioners
and nearly 40% filled their prescriptions at more
than one pharmacy, suggesting they are "shopping
for" practitioners who prescribe inappropriately.
Although the number of Americans filling pre-
scriptions for opioids declined 9.2% in the study pe-
riod, both the number of prescriptions filled and the
number of days of medication per prescription rose
approximately 8.4%. Short-term use of prescription
opiates declined 11.1%; the number of longer-term
opioid users remained fairly constant over the 5
years studied.
Higher Addiction Risk
An important finding was that nearly half of pa-
tients who took opiate painkillers for more than 30
days in the first year of use continued to use them
for 3 years or longer. Almost 50% of those patients
were taking only short-acting opioids, which puts
them at higher risk of addiction.
Younger Adults, Women, More Likely To Take
Opioids
Younger adults (ages 20 to 40) use more opioid
medications even though the elderly have the high-
est prevalence of opioid use. Thirty percent more
women than men took prescription opiates in 2013,
but men were more likely to fill more prescriptions
and take higher doses of medications. The greatest
concentration of opioid use was found in the small
cities in the Southeast United States, with the ma-
jority of these cities in four states (Kentucky, Ala-
bama, Georgia, and Arkansas).
C
ontinued from page 21
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