Another area discussed by a helpful document that we shared in a couple of previous posts, which provided information regarding prescription drug abuse among teenagers, is drug poisoning.
A number of statistics were shared in the document, all related to the condition of drug poisoning. One is that unintentional drug poisoning led to over seven hundred thousand visits to the emergency room. A quarter of these visits sometimes lead to hospitalization or to a transfer to another facility.
In addition, there has been an increase in the occurrence of accidental death due to drug poisoning, which increased 68.3 percent over a period of five years, between 1999 and 2004. This is according to a report provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to Reuters Health. These incidents of drug poisoning, according to the document, are caused mainly by prescription drugs.
The CDC states further that drug poisoning follows motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death due to unintentional injury in the United States. For a specific demographic – that of people who are aged 35 to 54 years old – drug poisoning even surpassed motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in the country. This is according to information provided by the Injury Center of the CDC.
All these statistics indicate that prescription drug abuse is a very real problem with dire consequences, and when left unchecked in teenagers, it can lead to the wasting away of a young life that would otherwise have reached greater heights.
Tags: teen drug abuse, teen drug addiction, teen prescription drugs
