Pain relievers popping in popularity

William Atkins
Monday, 20 August 2007 18:51

Science - Health

AP reports that the five major pain relievers used in the United States rose 90% between 1997 and 2005, according to statistics from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The Associated Press (AP) contributes most of the dramatic increase in pain relief medication to five narcotics—codeine, hydrocodone, meperidine, morphine, and oxycodone—during this past eight-year period.

However, AP writer Frank Bass, from his August 20, 2007 AP article “Pain Medicine Use Has Nearly Doubled,” contends that oxycodone, which is used in OxyContin®, is responsible for the large share of the increase.

Oxycodone is an extremely strong and potentially addictive opioid analgesic medication. It was originally marketed in 1939 in the United States as Eukodal® and Dinarkon®. Nicknamed the “hillbilly heroin” due to its illegal use in eastern rural areas of the United States, it is often medically used to treat pain in cancer patients. It is now readily used throughout the United States. It is similar to codeine, with only slight differences in their chemical structures. In the United States, oxycodone is classified as a Schedule II controlled substance, as part of the 1970 U.S. Controlled Substances Act.

Pain relievers, or painkillers, are various types of analgesic drugs that are prescribed to relieve or reduce pain. Such drugs usually act either on the peripheral nervous system or the central nervous systems. The main divisions of analgesic drugs are paracetamol (such as acetaminophen, which is found in such products as Tylenol®); nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) (such as aspirin, ibuprofen [such as Advil®], and naproxen [Aleve®]); narcotics (such as morphine, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, and meperidine); and synthetic, narcotic-like drugs (such as tramadol [Ultram®]).

The statistics from the DEA report originated from the sales and distribution of drugs by hospitals, medical centers, pharmacies, doctors and teaching institutions, and other medical related sources. The DEA was gathering such statistics in order to deal with the increasing illegal drug market in the United States and around the world.